Interesting Times
by SilverKit'sFire
Summary: prequel/sequel to Alternate Realities. marauders era. hopefully lots of fun, but still a work in progress. possible slash, haven't decided. sort of canonic, but also not. trying to fill in some plot holes that bugged me in books. anyway, please enjoy
1. Prologues1 and 2 CreationWhiteLioness

A/N: okay, to anyone who has already read the prologue for Alternate Realities, you can skip to part 2 of this if you like, since part one is the same as before. to anyone who hasn't read it, the prologue -- or part 1, anyway -- is written as a creation myth/story, but if you don't like that style don't worry, the rest of this will be normal, i promise, but please read this anyway. i swear it's relevant. all readers should read part two because it's totally new ^_^

no disclaimer necessary here; this part's all mine

* * *

Prologue Part 1

* * *

Creation

Cosmos

In the beginning there was. But perhaps it is not so much what there was as what there was not. There were no worlds, no stars, no light or time, or even space. There simply was. And what was, was Thought, for that is all that can exist without space. And it was not so much a single thought, but rather the essence of Thought itself. But Thought can never last long in nothingness without getting bored and creating something new to consider. And so Thought, getting bored, imagined a place, and because it was the essence of Thought, a place there was. But it could not be seen and so Thought gave it lights; many, many lights in many, many places within the place. So the place became the Universe, the great Cosmos. And the lights were the stars. And Thought became the Creator.

Now the Creator is not really a person as we understand the word, but rather just an entity, a mind in existence outside what we can truly comprehend. Neither male nor female, animal or mineral, but rather all and still more. The Creator is in everything and holds part of everything that exists within itself as well as all things that have been and have yet to be; ageless, timeless. Yet for the sake of simplicity we will call the Creator after a female, for She gave birth to us all.

Now the Universe that had been created for a while was the Creator's experiment, and She played with the stars, shaping them to Her liking, fashioning the clusters we know as Galaxies. And this amused Her for a time, watching the dance of the beautiful things She had made. But She felt that her work was incomplete. And so She fashioned around some of the stars the planets. And because She was the essence of Thought, the planets were all different, though many had similarities. And this was better, but still She was not satisfied for all things were in Her control and there was nothing to occupy Her attention. And so She began to experiment yet again and She found that some planets held the potential for life.

Now life was a new thing and it took time to get it right, for, not being anything like the life She was trying to create, the Creator was not entirely sure what to make the life like. Now the tale of the creation of life is long in the telling and in truth there are many different tales, for each people has their own version. Yet life is, and all that is, is the Creator's doing. She made the first the water and the land. Then She made the plants, and next the animals. And she made each thing suited to where it grew or lived, but knowing that things might change She also gifted all life with the ability to change with the world, to adapt.

Now, recognizing the need for procreation, the Creator, in truth sexless Herself, gave all life a way to mate and make more life, though not all living things can be said to have a gender as it were. And so life flourished and the Creator was very well pleased with what she had made and for some time — for now that there was a need for the ability to mark the passage of change there was Time — She was content to sit back and rest as she watched Her new creations, and the antics of the animals pleased and amused Her.

But soon she became discontented, for though the animals lived and played as she had intended, they were not able to think as She did, and She was lonely and longed for a creature who would know Her as no other; who would have thoughts and wishes as She did and who would turn to Her for guidance. And so the Creator went back to worlds with life and, working with what was already there, She fashioned new races of beings. Most of these were similar to one another; humans or humanoids. And these pleased Her greatly, for they had many thoughts and did many things that other beings could not. And She gave to them the freedom of choice and taught them the use of tools and of fire, for while they were much cleverer than the other animals, they were very vulnerable, lacking both the built-in weapons of a predator and the natural speed and stamina of a prey animal and so needed all their greater wit to survive.

But it seemed to Her that it was unfair to gift only the human creatures with so much, especially as they now preyed on the other creatures with such skill. And so She gave to the animals a world all their own; a Homeworld where every species could live and flourish, a world untouched by humans. And to the animals that lived there, She gave them a greater wisdom than was had by other animals and so they were the Wise Beasts. And as time went on and the magical creatures were hunted more and more by the humans who sought after their power, those who could fled to the Homeworld, and it became their refuge, for the world was safeguarded from the human hunters for them by the Great Shifters, who are the guardians of Her great design.

And so life flourished and the Creator was much pleased and is content to watch us and help us and guide us as we find our way in this great cosmos She has fashioned for us, for we are all Her children and She is our great Mother.

Of Magic and Shifters

Now when the Creator made Her thought real and tangible, She did this not just with Her thought but with the Power that is the potential of being and with Belief. And because all things were made by Her with this Power and with Belief, the Power is in all things, and all things that can think can Believe. The two together are the base of Magic, for Magic at its simplest is merely the name given to the ability to believe a thing into being. The key to Magic is one must want it, and one must trust it to be enough for it to be. But because with Magic comes the ability to change the order of things so drastically, only a small portion of beings can truly touch the Magic. Nor is it an ability given to a particular species or people; but rather to the individual who is strong enough to wield it, though whether they do good or ill with it is their choice, for Magic, like any tool, is only as great or as terrible as the person behind it.

Now at first this was fine, and those who could touch the Magic found many uses for it. Some learned to see into the future and tell of what might be, others learned to heal wounds and treat the sick, still others used it to protect their people. But as time went on, the magic users learned more and more of what they could do and the Power began to show itself more strongly. Some of the magic users found that they could do more than the others; some were able to change their shape — to take on another creature's form, others found that they could use the Magic to travel great distances in hardly any time at all, and some could even travel through Time itself. These were the Shifters, so called because they could shift their forms and/or the Space-Time continuum around them.

Now when these greater Powers began to emerge, the Creator was troubled. It was not that She begrudged the people the abilities, but rather that those abilities gave the people another ability; the power to change things, to mess about with Her design. And so She decided to create a race of very powerful Shifters whose task it would be to safeguard Her creation from the meddling of the other, lesser Shifters.

Now, seeing how mostly only humans and humanoids were gifted with Magic and knowing how they tended to hunger after power, the Creator did not make Her new race of guardians from them. Instead She went to the Homeworld and there She took the lions, who are the kings among beasts, and formed from them a new people. They were also lions in original form but with all the powers of Shifting and other Magics as well. And to them She gave the task of keeping the order of things. To help them in this great undertaking the Creator gave to these new Great Shifters a greater understanding than any other creature in the workings of time and space and Magic and Her design for the Cosmos. And so the Order is kept.

* * *

Prologue Part 2

* * *

White Lioness

She lived _outside. _Outside of everthing. Outside of the Prides, outside of Families, outside of the society. Outside even of time and space. So if Her people needed to see Her, then this was where they had to come. She could see the two young lionesses as they approached, shivering. It was cold here, dark and empty. Surely nothing was meant to live like this — at least, nothing normal.

"Come on," the larger of the two urged, the slit pupils of her emerald green eyes swelling with apprehension. "We have to do this."

"I know that," hissed her companion, whose fur was rippling. She inhaled deeply, then sighed. "Right. Let's go."

Together they padded forward, not sure exactly where they were going, but knowing, somehow, that it was the right way. In a place outside time and space, it didn't really matter which way you went. It was all about where you were going.

They never could have said how long it took. Trying to dredge up a concept of time in a place without it is a little like to trying to dredge up logic while dreaming; it simply can't be done in way that makes sense. It could have been forever, but equally it could have been no time at all. Maybe it was both. But eventually they found Her — or perhaps She found them.

"Little kits, why do you come here? This is my domain. It is no place for mortals." Her voice was like the cry of the wind, like the roar of a lion, like water over rock. Timeless. Ageless. The two shivered in the darkness, looking around for any sign of Her, but all was blank.

"Well, younglings?"

Finally the larger of the two stepped forward and crouched down, bowing her head and letting her ears fall to the side in respect.

"We would beg a boon, Memory Keeper."

"Speak of this boon."

It was a command, not a question. The lioness swallowed and her tail twitched slightly.

"We wish to learn of other magics, Eldest," she said. "But we wish to do so as part of the culture of origin, so we will need to go somewhere where we cannot be recognized. We beg permission to visit one of the forbidden planets."

It was a bold request. But it seemed to suite her for though the young lioness was clearly unnerved by her strange surroundings and by Her presence, or lack thereof, her speech did not waver or betray hint of any other fear. She purred; it had been long since any last dared make such a request and, perversely, it pleased Her. But there was still the other one. She needed to speak for herself here.

"And you, small one?" She asked. "Do you desire this as well?"

The smaller lioness started ever so slightly at suddenly being addressed. She hid her fear well, but She could smell the sour tang of it, and was pleased. Not by the fear, but by the courage demonstrated in the hiding and defying of that fear.

The lioness moved forward and crouched beside her friend. "Yes, Mother, I too wish for this to be. I too beg this boon." The word Mother was an honorific title, meant to indicate the highest respect, rather than direct kinship. She did not often hear it applied to Herself, but She could not help responding to it with warmth.

"Very well, my kits," She said, stepping forward and revealing Herself to them. They blinked and stared as the light that came into this nowhere, from nowhere, shimmered off of Her strange, iridescent white fur. "I shall find you a school of magic. Somewhere where our kind are unknown. Where we have perhaps never been," She blinked Her eerie diamond colored eyes, "or, perhaps, have simply been forgotten."

* * *

A/N: okay, so originally i wasn't going to write or at least post this until i was done with Alternate Realities, but it's frustrating writing multiple stories and i guess i feel like enough of that one is posted that it's okay to go ahead and start working on this one, which is the sequel/prequel to it. however, that much being said, this is very much a work in progress and i would really love some feedback so please let me know what you think or any ideas you might have. i have only a very loose plot line for this so if anyone sends me an idea that works or even just tickles my fancy i'll try to work it in somehow ^_^

on that note --- this prologue... i kind of feel like maybe i should split it up into two separate chapters, but i'm not really sure. if it had been a published book, then it would have been. if you think i should split it up let me know, otherwise, just think of it as two separate -- but related -- things.

alright. enjoy ^_^

~SilverKit'sFire


	2. Back to School

disclaimer: HP and it's characters are not mine, just.... all the others........ ?

A/N: okay, so i just had a fifteen minute argument with this thing and i give up. except for up here at the top and down on the bottom if i leave post-notes, wherever there are line-breaks, i want you to imagine stars instead, b/c that's what it's _supposed _to be..... anyway, this is set in the marauder era, starting in their third year. i'm not completely sure where this is going -- or rather, i know where it's going ultimately, i'm just not one hundred percent sure how it's getting there, so please be patient with me. also, i writing several other stories right now (not all are posted here cuz a few of them are original stories, not fanfics) and i'm also nearing final's week so i don't think i'll have a whole lot of time on my hands to write this.... at least, not for a while. also, as i mentioned before, this is still kind of a rought draft so feel free to let me know what you all think. and please, please point out any major spelling or grammar errors you find. i try to catch them all but i know i miss them sometimes and it drives me nuts XD

so, now that i've totally bored you with my incessant rambling, please enjoy the chapter ^_^

* * *

_**1973**_

_**

* * *

**_

_**Back to School**_

It was a day — September first, to be exact — much like any other. In London, it just so happened to be a beautiful day: The sky was a bright, inviting blue, with only a few clouds; the sun beat down unimpeded and made the air almost too hot, but the wind was blowing, making everything perfect. It was the kind of day that everyone wanted to get outside to enjoy. The kind of day where the last place on earth you wanted to be was stuck inside a car in the middle of traffic.

Thirteen year-old Sirius Black groaned, staring out the window at the people walking by — presumably to work — and wishing that he could be out walking too. Or at least that the car would go faster. He didn't think he could take much more of this.

"Are we there yet? How much farther? What's Hogwarts like? Do they really make you swim the lake to get in? What if I can't make it? What if —"

"Shut up, would you?" said Sirius, throwing his younger brother Regulus a look of annoyance. "And stop squirming, for pity's sake." It was Regulus's first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Regulus was ecstatic. Sirius, who didn't think that the boy had shut up for a whole two seconds together since he'd woken up that morning, was anything but.

"Sirius! Leave your brother alone," said their mother irritably from the driver's seat. Mrs. Black was in a bad mood; she hated driving, feeling it was below her station, but Sirius's father — the only one who knew how to commission a driver — was away on business this week and Sirius and Regulus were both too young for Side-Along Apparation.

Sirius glared at his knees; he didn't dare glare at his mother. She, of course, was thrilled to have her youngest son going off to school. For all she said she'd miss having her little boy around, Sirius knew that she was eager for Regulus to start school, to have a son whose achievements she could be proud of. Heaving a sigh, Sirius went back to staring out the window.

* * *

Kings Cross Station was as crowded as ever when they got there. The Muggles moved about, calling out to friends arriving or rushing to catch a train before it left. The Black family had all been careful to wear their street clothes, but Sirius couldn't help but feel that they stood out a bit. The fashion trends were changing: for now most people still wore suits, but some wore loudly colored shirts and some strange kind of pant that fit very tightly to the knee and then flared out at the bottom. Sirius thought it looked pretty odd, but since it was mostly young adults who were wearing it, it had to be the latest thing.

"Sirius! Hurry up," his mother called imperiously, holding Regulus by the hand as the boy bounced excitedly. Rolling his eyes, both at his brother and at the incomprehensible strangeness of Muggles, Sirius grabbed the cart with his school trunk on it and pushed it after his mother and brother, through the brick barrier, and onto platform nine and three quarters.

The platform was packed with Hogwarts students, saying good-bye to their families, shouting at their friends, and heaving their trunks onto the Hogwarts Express, which stood stationary, belching sooty steam as it waited to take the students off to Hogwarts, their home-away-from-home for the next nine months. Sirius took a deep breath of the brick-and-smoke air and grinned. Summer was finally over.

"I'm going to go find my friends," he said to his mother. She didn't look up from fussing with Regulus's trunk, double-checking yet again that he had remembered everything he needed. "Bye!" Sirius tried again. But Mrs. Black just flapped a hand at him dismissively. Sirius glared, then spun on his heel and headed for the train. He hauled his trunk onboard and set off down the corridor, looking for his friends. Not finding them, he figured he must be the first one there, so he found an empty compartment, stowed his trunk, and sat down by the window to watch for them. He didn't have to wait long; within five minutes he saw a familiar mop of untidy black hair headed towards the train. Quickly he threw open the window and leaned out.

"Oi! James!" he called. "Up here!"

"Sirius! I'll be there in a minute," his friend called back, spotting him and waving. Then he turned back to his parents to say good-bye. Sirius couldn't help feeling a prickle of envy as he watched; his own parents had never been like that with him, especially not since he'd gotten sorted into Gryffindor house when the rest of the family had been in Slytherin. At last, after a final round of hugs and wishes for good luck, the black-haired boy turned and pulled his trunk onto the train. Sirius grinned and held open the compartment door, then helped to stow the heavy trunk.

"Thanks, mate," said other boy, running a hand through his black hair, making it even more messy. James Potter was thin-faced with soft hazel eyes, a long, thin-bladed nose, and glasses. He was also Sirius's best friend. They had met on the train their first year and had developed an instant liking for one another. Sorted into the same house and sharing a fondness for trouble, the two had become fast friends.

"So," said James, "Remus and Peter not here yet?"

"Guess not," said Sirius. "But it shouldn't be long now. It's nearly ten."

No sooner had he spoken than there was a banging outside and the compartment door slid open to reveal a thin, pale boy with light blue eyes and sandy brown hair bleached almost blonde by the summer sun.

"Get out of the way, would you?" said Remus Lupin, looking tired but happy to see them. "This stuff's heavy."

"Sorry," said Sirius, and he and James moved to let their friend in. Sirius eyed his friend, trying to remember when full moon was.

Remus was a werewolf; for all of first year, he'd made excuses for his monthly disappearances, but halfway through last year Sirius and the others had figured it out. Poor Remus had looked terrified when they'd told him they knew but they had quickly assured him that they didn't mind. Actually, they intended to do something to help just as soon as they could figure out what, though they hadn't told Remus yet, just in case they couldn't manage it. At any rate, Remus had relaxed a lot since then, but the transformations still put him under considerable strain.

"Seen Peter anywhere?" Sirius asked him, casting a glance out the window.

Peter Pettigrew was the fourth and final member of their little band. Small, mousy-haired and just a bit plump with watery blue eyes, he had always seemed an unlikely addition to the group, but the boy had a knack for finding small spaces that was very useful for anyone looking to get around a few school rules, and as that was something Sirius and James tended to do a lot, it was really hardly surprising that Peter had wound up a friend.

"I saw him on my way onboard," Remus said, stowing his trunk with James's help. "He was just saying good-bye to his parents. I expect he'll show up soon enough."

"Good," said James. "So, how was everyone's summer?"

Remus looked at Sirius, tacitly inviting him to go first, but Sirius just shrugged. The most interesting thing that had happened to him all summer had been his parents had forcing him to take lessons in ballroom dancing with some former dance champion. It seemed that they still had not quite given up on turning him into some kind of upper class snob, and being able to waltz properly was a requirement. The funny part was that the dance lessons themselves hadn't been so bad. In fact, Sirius thought that if it hadn't been for the fact that it was something his parents were making him do, he might have actually enjoyed it. But there was no way on earth he was going to tell his friends that.

"Nothing really happened," he said instead. "Although, I did get to practice that trip jinx on our house elf."

"But, aren't we not allowed to use magic outside of school yet?" protested Remus, looking slightly concerned.

"So?" said Sirius. "It's not like the Ministry can tell who's casting the spell, is it? So as long as you don't let anyone catch you. . . ." He trailed off, waggling his eyebrows.

James laughed, then turned to Remus. "What about you, then?" he asked. But before Remus could answer, the compartment door slid open again and Peter stumbled inside, haphazardly dragging his school trunk behind him. His hand slipped on the handle and James and Remus leaped out of the way as he fell.

"Smooth entrance, Peter," Sirius teased him.

"Oh shut up!" Peter retorted, clambering to his feet as James and Remus laughed. "Come on, someone help me with this thing."

Grinning, Sirius moved to help, then frowned when he felt how heavy the trunk was.

"What've you got in there?" he demanded. "A load of bricks or something?"

"Only half a load," said Peter, looking hurt. Then he grinned. "Just kidding, it's just a lot of books, is all. Flourish and Blot's was having a sale and my mum went overboard."

"No kidding," Sirius grunted, trying again to lift the trunk. "This weighs a ton. James, come and help."

In the end, it took the combined efforts of all of them to load the heavy trunk onto the storage rack, though Peter was really too short still to be of that much help. Afterwards, as the Hogwarts Express began its long journey across the English countryside, James resumed his interrogation, wanting to know about everyone's summers. Something about the gleam in his eye made Sirius think that his friend had something to tell them and was just making sure that no one else had anything seriously interesting happen, but that was okay. He wanted to know what had gone on with everyone, too.

Peter was jus telling them how his mother had tried to teach him to cook and he'd accidentally set the stove on fire when their door opened yet again. Turning to see who it was, Sirius groaned.

"Sirius," Regulus whined, "everywhere's full. And I don't know anyone. What am I supposed to do?"

"Go away, twerp," said Sirius irritably. He had worked very hard to keep his friends and his family separate; the last thing he needed was for Regulus to go and screw that up.

"Who's he?" James wanted to know.

"My little brother," said Sirius, grimacing. He turned back to Regulus. "Seriously, go away."

"But —"

"Look, just go find some other first years," he said, getting up and herding his brother back out. "It shouldn't be too hard. They'll look just as scared as you."

"I'm not scared!" Regulus retorted, glaring up at him.

"Good," said Sirius quickly. "Then you don't need me." And he shut the door in Regulus's face.

"That wasn't very nice," said Remus as Sirius returned to his seat.

"So?" he said. "He's got to learn to take care of himself some time. Besides," he added, when Remus still looked unconvinced, "would you want your kid brother hanging about?"

Remus, an only child, shrugged. "I guess not," he conceded.

"Oh, I don't know," said James slowly. "I always though it would be fun to have a little brother around, you know? I mean, it would be like having ready-made victim who would always forgive you."

Sirius laughed.

"Yeah," he admitted. "That part is fun sometimes. I told Regulus he'd have to swim the lake since it's his first year."

"Did you tell him about the giant squid that lives in the lake?" James asked.

"Of course," said Sirius as his friends all laughed. "I'm not entirely sure he believed me, but he didn't not believe me, either, because he keeps asking about it. Anyway, what happened to you this summer, James? You haven't told us yet."

"Oh. That," said James, trying and failing to sound indifferent about it.

"What happened?" asked Remus, looking sharply at James. Sirius grinned; Remus was quieter and more studious than James and himself, but he was sharp.

"Well. . . . " said James slowly, deliberately dangling the bait for them.

"What? What?" asked Peter, bouncing slightly. "Did you set something on fire, too?"

James shook his head. "Of course not," he said, sounding offended.

"Think about who we're talking about here," said Remus almost scornfully. "More likely he blew up the house or something."

"No, I didn't," said James laughing. "I like my house."

"So what happened?" Peter demanded.

"You'll never guess —" James started.

"Good, then just tell us," said Sirius. James was his best friend, but his theatrics could get annoying.

"Oh, alright," said James, sounding slightly put out. "My parents made me get a job."

"What?" chorused the others.

"Yeah," said James, nodding. "You know that new broom I want? Well, mum said that I could have it, but only if I paid for part of it. She says I need to start learning about the value of money. So I had to work over the summer. "

"What did you do?" asked Sirius, now curious.

"One of my mum's friends owns a shop in Diagon Alley," said James. "I helped out there. Mostly cleaning and some odd jobs — staking shelves and stuff. It wasn't so bad, and I got paid. I almost have enough for the broom."

"Cool," said Sirius. He and the others had never had jobs before. Stacking shelves and cleaning didn't sound like a whole lot of fun, but making money would be nice. Not that his parent's couldn't afford to buy him anything he wanted — though whether they would or not was another matter entirely — but he hated having to ask them for anything.

The conversation continued as the train chugged onwards. Soon the green hills of the English countryside were flashing by outside the window. Lunch rolled around and Sirius and his friends pulled out sandwiches to eat. Then Sirius went out in search of the little witch who ran the food trolley to pick them all up some sweets. Deciding to try up the train first, he walked through the cars, waving to a few people he knew. Three cars up, he saw Regulus sitting in a compartment with several other first years. They seemed to have gotten over the initial awkwardness of meeting and were now swapping food and chocolate frog cards. Sirius sighed; his brother was an annoying little twerp and they were hardly close but still the boy was only eleven. Now that he wouldn't be constantly under their mother's eye, Sirius couldn't help hoping that maybe if he could just meet the right people he might turn out okay.

Distracted by his thoughts, Sirius didn't notice there was anyone else in the next car's hallway until he walked right into them. He stumbled back as sweets spilled everywhere.

"Whoops!" he said, blinking and bending down. "Sorry. Here, let me help —" But as he reached out to help pick up the fallen food, a pale hand swatted his away and snatched up the sweets and a voice muttered something foreign that Sirius didn't understand but thought was probably swears. He stood up and found himself face to face with one angry-looking girl.

Her name was Kaysa. No one knew her last name; even the teachers didn't use it. The only possible explanation Sirius could come up with for this was that whatever it was, it was totally unpronounceable or something. He didn't know much about her; she and her cousin (whose name he couldn't even remember) kept to themselves. They didn't ever talk in class. In fact, Sirius didn't think he'd ever heard her speak before.

Pushing these thought away, he smiled disarmingly at her. Most girls — whether because he and James were becoming pretty popular or just because he was good-looking — would have been thrilled. Kaysa was not. Instead of smiling back, she curled her lip at him, her emerald green eyes cool and distant.

"Hey, I said I was sorry," said Sirius, bemused.

"Hmph!" the girl snorted. She turned up her nose at him and walked off without a word, brushing by him and heading for a compartment door at the end of the car, her odd, garnet-colored hair swinging with every stride.

Sirius stared after her, surprised and intrigued. He hesitated for a moment, debating whether or not to follow her and try to listen at the door, but his stomach growled and he decided his curiosity could wait. By the time he'd gotten back to his friends, his arms loaded with as much food as he could carry, he'd all but forgotten about the strange encounter with the even stranger girl.

* * *

(_**Kaysa**_)

"What a jerk!" Kaysa burst out, dumping her armful of sweets on the seat and dropping down beside the pile to sit by the window. Chitral, her cousin and best friend in the cosmos, looked up from her book, startled.

"Who?" she asked.

"That — that boy — what's-his-name. The one who's always with the one with messy hair and glasses," said Kaysa.

"Um," said Chitral blankly.

Kaysa sighed. "Oh, come on," she said. "He's in our year — on the quiddich team —"

"You mean Potter?" said Chitral, blinking large, jade green eyes.

"That's the one," said Kaysa nodding. "Who's his friend? The arrogant, dark-haired one?"

"Oh, that one," said Chitral, running a hand through her own mass of red-gold hair. "Er, isn't he one of those one with a color name?"

"Right, Black!" said Kaysa, snapping her fingers triumphantly. "Anyway, he's a jerk."

"Shocker, that," said Chitral dryly. "We kind of already suspected as much. What brings it up all of a sudden?"

"Oh, nothing really," said Kaysa, "I just ran into him, that's all. Literally," she added, grumbling. "He walked right into me. Like he didn't even see me there or something."

"Well," Chitral said hesitantly, "that can happen you know. We've done it."

"Well, yeah," Kaysa allowed, "But we don't smile pretty and expect it to all just go away or something."

"We're girls," said Chitral. "We're smarter than that."

"True," said Kaysa, "But that's no excuse —"

"Oh, come on, Kays," her friend chided. "He _is_ only human, after all."

"Species-ist," Kaysa accused, laughing.

"Realist," Chitral corrected, going back to her reading.

Kaysa shrugged and pulled out a book herself. She wasn't reading for pleasure, though. This was work. Transfiguration was her hardest subject in school. This bothered her. She actually quite liked their Transfiguration teacher, Professor McGonagall, even if the woman was a bit scary sometimes. She was strong; no-nonsense, Kaysa respected that. She was also a good teacher and it frustrated Kaysa that for some reason she never seemed to be able to do the woman justice. So, determined to do better this year, Kaysa was reading ahead in their textbook. Understanding the theory might not help directly, but Kaysa hoped that maybe if she could understand it better then she could maybe see where she was having trouble and ask the right questions. Then she remembered that she and Chitral never spoke in class if they could avoid it; their accents were odd, and, besides, English was difficult. It didn't have enough words. Still, they really needed to at least try.

She sighed and opened the book to chapter one and began to read. After about five minutes, however, she hadn't even gotten to the second page. Her thoughts kept returning to the Black boy. She growled softly at herself. She wasn't even really angry anymore; it was just that he was so arrogant. She couldn't help it; she wanted to put him in his place, to wipe the self-confident smile right off his face.

Kaysa glowered out the window at the hills rolling by, then shook herself. Deciding that she would find a way to get back at him later, she pushed all thoughts of Sirius Black from her mind and went back to her reading.

* * *

It was getting dark when the train finally came to a stop. Sirius and his friends carefully navigated their way through the crowd of first year students milling about uncertainly —they would be taken care of by Hagrid, the groundskeeper — and made their way with the rest of the upperclassmen to where several dozen black carriages stood waiting for them. Sirius had no idea how they worked, but there must have been some kind of charm on them because they never seemed to need any horses to move. Pushing the mystery of the horseless carriages out of his mind, Sirius joined James, Remus, and Peter in one of them. As soon as all the carriages were full, they lurched forward and began to make their way along the now dark road, passing through the castle gates and onto the Hogwarts grounds. Looking out the window at the huge, old castle, lit up with soft light from within, Sirius smiled happily.

"I can't wait for the feast," said James, looking over Sirius's shoulder at the castle. "I'm starving!"

"Me too," said Peter, whose stomach was growling. "I hope the sorting doesn't take too long."

"You're always hungry, Peter," said Sirius laughing. "Surely you've learned to be patient about it by now."

"I wouldn't laugh if I were you," said Remus. "My dad says that as soon as we start growing we'll all be starving all the time."

"Yeah. I hope it happens soon, though," said James. "I can't wait to be tall."

"I don't know," said Sirius. "I mean, tall sounds good, but I don't want my voice cracking like that. Remember Angus?"

His friends all made faces. Angus Coyle was a Ravenclaw sixth-year whose voice had started to change the year before. According to the stories, he'd had to give a presentation for one of his classes and his voice had cracked wildly halfway through. By the end of the day everyone knew it and the poor guy hadn't talked for nearly a week for fear of it happening again.

"Point," agreed James as the carriage came to stop. "But I don't think we really get a choice about it. Come on, let's go."

They hopped out and joined the throng of students entering the castle and heading into the Great Hall, then threw themselves gratefully down into seats at the long Gryffindor table. Sirius was getting hungry himself by now and he looked around impatiently as the other students took their seats at their house tables. Over at the Slytherin table, one of his cousins, Narcissa Black was sitting next to Lucius Malfoy. Narcissa was in her sixth year, Lucius his seventh. They had been dating for the last two years and Sirius had heard his parents talking about how they were likely to be engaged soon. Sirius just wanted them out of school so he wouldn't have to deal with them anymore. He wished it could have been Andromeda he'd been in school with. She was his favorite cousin, but she had graduated the year before he started. Still, better Narcissa than Bellatrix. Bella was the oldest of the three sisters and she'd always given Sirius the creeps.

Sitting with Lucius and Narcissa were some other prominent Slytherins, including Avery, Mulciber, and Severus Snape. Snape was Sirius and James's favorite person in the school to hate. They had been enemies ever since they'd all met on the train their first year. Snape had made friends with the older Lucius very quickly and he was way into the dark arts, but he was also, somehow, close friends with Lily Evans, one of the girls in Gryffindor. James had actually developed a bit of crush on her towards the end of last year, but Lily had disliked him and Sirius since they met first year.

"Here they are," said James, breaking Sirius's train of though. "Finally."

Sirius looked around and saw Professor McGonagall, the Transfiguration teacher and head of Gryffindor house, leading the first-years up to the front of the Great Hall to be sorted. He listened with only half an ear as the sorting hat sang its song describing the four houses — Gryffindor for the brave, Ravenclaw for the intelligent, Hufflepuff for the loyal, and Slytherin for the pureblooded and cunning — and then began sorting the students. There was really only one that mattered.

ADAMS, LUCY, the first on the list, became a Hufflepuff. Then ARCHER, DARREL was sorted into Ravenclaw. Sirius tuned out until BLACK, REGULUS was called. He watched as his little brother hurried forward to sit on the stool. Professor McGonagall put the sorting hat on his head.

"SLYTHERIN!" it shouted.

Regulus hopped off the stool and trotted happily over to the Slytherin table. Sirius sighed, not sure if he was disappointed or just relived not to be in the same house as his brother. The sorting continued and he tuned out again, watching faint stars appear in the magical ceiling overhead, paying just enough attention to clap whenever necessary. At last, WHITTAKER, MELISSA was made a Ravenclaw and the sorting ceremony was over. Then Dumbledore stood to welcome them all. His stomach now growling loudly, Sirius sent silent thanks that Dumbledore's initial welcome was always very short. Soon the tables were magically stacked with mass amounts of food and Sirius and his fellow students all fell on it with enthusiasm. It was delicious, as always. Sirius had always thought that Hogwarts must have a monopoly on elite chefs or something, until he and his friends had discovered a way into the kitchens the year before and discovered all the house elves that worked down there. It had been a very pleasant discovery; house elves were always happy to serve, and Sirius and his friends loved having a place to stock up on good food whenever they felt like it.

After they had all stuffed themselves full to bursting with roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, Yorkshire pudding, and all kinds of dessert including treacle tart, mince pies, and chocolate éclairs, Dumbledore stood again to give the students a more proper welcome and make sure that new students were aware of the school rules. Then he sent them all off, yawning and stumbling, to their dormitories. Sirius followed the other Gryffindors up the stairs and along the halls to the portrait of the Fat Lady, which covered the hole in the wall that led to the Gryffindor dormitories.

"Password," the Fat Lady demanded.

"Alpha horologii," said Neal Thompson, the new prefect. Sirius wasn't surprised that it was Neal; good humored and easy going, the boy was an excellent student, well liked by both his fellow students and most of the teachers. Responsible as ever, Neal waited until all the new first-years had gone through the portrait hole before going through himself.

"Alpha horologii?" Sirius muttered to James as they waited. "Where d'you suppose they got that one?"

"No idea," James replied. "But it doesn't seem a very good choice, does it? I mean, it's so weird that either no one will forget it or else everyone will."

"Well, if we're going for all or nothing then I guess everyone's going to forget," said Liam Doherty, their year-mate, turning slightly to look at them. "_I've _certainly already forgotten."

James and Sirius laughed with him then followed his curly brown head through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room. A fire blazed welcome from the fireplace surrounded by dozens of squashy armchairs, which Sirius knew from experience were very comfortable for doing homework in. But right now he was so tired that he suspected that if he sat down he'd just fall asleep, so instead of hanging around to catch up on news, he headed up the staircase to the boys' dormitories and into the room he shared with James, Remus, Peter, and Liam to unpack what he needed and then turn in. Remus, yawning hugely, followed him.

"Why does riding a train all day always seem to make you so tired?" Sirius asked, pulling his pajamas and robes for the next day out of his trunk.

"I don't think it's the train ride that does it," said Remus drily, rummaging through his own trunk and pulling out a few photos to hang over his bed.

Sirius laughed. "Yeah, I suppose the whole packing, unpacking, first day back thing might have something to do it…"

"Do with what?" asked James, entering the room with Peter right behind him.

"Why we're always so tired first day back," said Sirius, pulling out a poster of his own and pinning it up. "I didn't expect you to come up for a while, James. Or was the gossip just boring?"

"Gossip!" James protested. "I don't gossip. People just tell me stuff, that's all."

"Oh, whatever," said Sirius, waving a hand at his friend. "Wasn't there any interesting news?"

"Not really," James replied shrugging and pulling on his pajamas. "Although Frank, Neal, and Merga were holed up in a corner when I left. They looked pretty serious, so something must be going on."

"Probably has something to do with this so-called dark lord and his followers," said Remus, stretching out on his four-poster bed. "You know how they are about that stuff."

James and Sirius nodded; Frank Longbottom and Merga Fitzgerald were both in their sixth year now, and they, along with Neal, Alice Davidson; a Ravenclaw girl also in her sixth year, and a few others, were very politically interested. If you ever needed to know what was going on, all you had to do was ask one of them.

"I don't know why they like that political stuff," said Peter. "I mean it's not like we don't have enough to do already. And Neal's a prefect this year, he needs to study for his O.W.L.s. What's he want to add to the headache for?"

"Just because it's complicated and confusing doesn't mean it's not important," said Remus, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "I paid some attention this summer to what's going on and I don't think it'll go too well for any of us if these Death Eaters come out on top."

James snorted. "Oh come one," he said. "If they call themselves Death Eaters I doubt anyone's ever going to let them come into power. I mean, honestly, they couldn't shout 'Dark Arts' more loudly if they tried!"

Remus pursed his lips, but said nothing. Sirius frowned; he wasn't sure what he thought. He agreed with Peter that it was a headache he didn't need right now, but sometimes, when he let himself think about it, he worried that Remus might be right. If the Death Eaters and their lord, whoever he was, ever came to power it would be bad news. Maybe it was better to have the headache now if it meant staying alive later. Unfortunately, he didn't see as he or his friends could really do much about it just now, which brought him back to 'it's a headache we don't need.' Of course, if Remus was right, it was unlikely that they would be given a choice. But before he could contemplate this any further, the dormitory door banged open and Liam came traipsing in, followed closely by Cameron Walsh, the sixth and final Gryffindor boy in their year.

"Man, I'm exhausted," said Liam, collapsing on his bed. "I'm so glad tomorrow's Sunday and we have no classes."

"And I can't believe you're tired already," said Cameron, laughing. "We only just got back."

"Not all of us are psychotic nocturnal creatures like you, Cameron," said James, yawning. "The rest of us are beat. If you're going to be up half the night then go away and let us sleep like normal people."

"Nice to see you, too, James," said Cameron rolling his eyes. "How was your summer?"

"Cam!" Sirius protested, "Didn't we just tell you we wanted to sleep? Ask us in the morning."

"But I'm curious," Cameron began, "I —"

At this point, by silent mutual agreement, James, Liam, and Sirius all threw their pillows at Cameron.

"Oh, fine," he said, dumping the pillows at the foot of his bed. "I'll just go find some people who know what fun is, shall I?" He walked out.

"He could at least have tossed them back," Liam complained as he made to get out of bed to retrieve his pillow. James stared at him.

"What are you getting up for? I'm not about to move again," he said. He pointed his wand at his own tossed pillow. "Accio!" The pillow zoomed across the room to him. He caught it handily and flopped back on his bed.

"Oh," said Liam, grinning sheepishly. "I forgot we could use magic again." He fished around for his wand then summoned his pillow too. Sirius laughed and followed suite.

"Night!" he said to his friends, closing the curtains on his four-poster. They all muttered 'good night' back, most sounding half asleep already. Sirius lay back against the pillows and pulled up the covers. Exhausted as he was, he didn't go to sleep immediately. Instead, he lay awake for a while just listening to his friends' breathing: the soft, even breaths of James and Remus, the odd, wheezy sort of whistle that was Peter's snore, the occasional louder, deeper snore that was Liam's. Back home his bedroom was always so quiet. He hated it; the silence screamed his isolation. But here, here he was never alone. Sirius smiled. It was good to be back.

* * *

A/N: okay, i know i already said this, but i cannot stress it enough.... i really, really want feedback on this, so please let me know what you think/thought. i hope you enjoyed it ^_^

oh, and yes, i do tend to body-hop (switch POV's) but this time i'm trying to do it in a more organized fashion. really!

~SilverKit'sFire


	3. Dangerous Game

disclaimer: HP and it's characters are not mine, just Kaysa and Chitral... and a few others out of sheer necessity

A/N: i'm sorry this took so long to get up. i had finals and then i sort of went on a reading and doing nothing binge for a while - college really takes it out of you! plus, i seemed to have about zero inspiration. tragic!

and again, please imagine stars instead of lines

* * *

_**Dangerous Game**_

James's theory proved to be correct; by Monday the password to Gryffindor tower had been changed on account of the number of students ending up stranded in the hall because they couldn't remember the password. Of course, the new password, _Rigil Kentaurus, _wasn't that much easier, but it was Monday and most of the students were more worried about making it through the first day of classes than they were about forgetting passwords. After a few days of adjusting, however, life soon fell into routine; classes, homework, free time spent outside while the weather was still good. Quidditch practices started for James, the full moon came and went and they all made excuses for Remus's absence, and Sirius got the first detention of the year from Professor McGonagall when a firework he'd had in his pocket from the day before accidentally went off in class. James accused him of doing it on purpose just to get a head start. Sirius grinned and told James he should just blow something up in Potions later if he was that jealous. Everyone had laughed at that; he and James didn't really compete to see who could get the most detentions or anything of course, but they were in trouble often enough that it made a good joke. Even funnier was when, later that same week, James wound up in detention for blowing something up not in Potions, but in History of Magic; he told Sirius later that he thought it was a good idea, but that he'd felt that History needed livening up far more than Potions did. Sirius laughed at that; History of Magic was incredibly boring and the explosion had broken the monotony nicely. His other classes were okay so far, and the new ones weren't bad either. Care of Magical Creatures was particularly fun; Sirius liked animals and the ones they'd seen so far were pretty cool. Muggle Studies, which he and James were taking because it had looked better than anything else, and which Peter was taking so he would be with his friends, was at least interesting, even if it didn't seem particularly useful.

Time passed by in a blur of classes and homework. Soon October came, and with it, the first Quidditch match of the year: Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. The Gryffindor team had been training hard all week, and James had actually been behaving so as not to miss practice. He was one of the team's Chasers, and he was very good at it. Normally the Gryffindor team didn't worry about Hufflepuff, but the team had some new players this year who were supposed to be pretty good and everyone had had the summer off.

The morning of the match dawned bright and sunny, but windy; not ideal playing conditions, but not bad either. Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter all went down to breakfast together, James already in his Quidditch robes, his eyes alert and shining, excited for the match. The rest of the school seemed excited too, and the atmosphere in the Great Hall was one of friendly competition. Or mostly friendly, Sirius amended as he spotted Malfoy, Avery, and Snape glaring at James from the Slytherin table.

Elbowing his friend he hissed, "Look," and jerked his head in the direction of the disgruntled Slytherins. James looked, then frowned.

"I wonder what they're bothered about," he muttered. "It's not like they have a stake in the match."

"Yeah, but they hate you," said Remus, sitting on James's other side. "Of course they don't want to see you win."

"Ha!" James laughed, "They don't want to have to play us later, more like. Afraid we'll sweep the field with them." He had not bothered to keep his voice down and the Slytherins had clearly heard him; they looked murderous. Sirius, James and Peter — and everyone else at the table who had heard — sniggered at their expressions. Even Remus laughed.

"Too right they are," said Rigel Murray, a fourth year and one of the Chasers. "We're probably the best team Gryffindor's had in years. I mean, we've got Neal for Keeper, James with us Chasers, and Kynthia as Seeker. We're practically unbeatable."

"God, you're cocky," a voice drawled from behind them. "Honestly, how do your brooms even fly, carrying around such huge egos?"

They all looked up to find Marcus Bertrand, the Slytherin quidditch captain, Lucius Malfoy, and Clark Avery standing right behind them. Glancing over at the Slytherin table, Sirius saw Snape, Mulciber, and a few other boys he recognized as part of the Slytherin quidditch team watching them. He thought their expressions were a bit odd, but supposed that maybe they were just eager to see their leader, Malfoy, take James and the Gryffindors down a peg. Well, they were in for a disappointment.

"Oh, I don't know," he said easily, imitating Malfoy's haughty arrogance. "I mean, we did win the Cup last year, and I seem to remember — well, actually not much about the match with Slytherin. It was kinda short and uneventful, wasn't it?"

"Sounds right to me," agreed James. "What was the score again? Thirty to about two hundred?"

"Granted, last year's team was just sad," put in Rigel. "I think the keeper must have needed glasses or something, he was so bad."

Avery's hand twitched toward what Sirius was sure was his wand, but before he could do anything, Marcus spoke.

"Yes," he said smugly. "You did have it easy last year, didn't you? But if you think you'll have it that easy again then you are most sorely mistaken. We've got some new talent this year, you see."

"Yeah," spat Avery, glaring at them. "So you'd better watch out!"

"Oooh!" said James (along with half the Gryffindor table), pretending to shiver. "Well, that does it for me. I'm _way _too afraid to play now."

Marcus and Malfoy shot exasperated looks at Avery, who flushed with embarrassment as the Gryffindors all laughed.

"Perhaps," said Malfoy, leaning in to leer at James, using his height to his advantage, "perhaps now that there's some real competition in the field, we'll see if you're really as good as you clearly think you are, Potter."

Sirius smirked. Malfoy was clearly going for intimidating, and on most other people, it probably would have worked, but Sirius knew that even if James was disconcerted, which was unlikely, he never ever let it show, especially not to someone like Lucius Malfoy.

James grinned rakishly, proving Sirius correct.

"Guess we will," he said coolly.

Malfoy glowered at him for a moment, then stood straight. "Make sure you win, Potter. I don't want you to lose before our team has had the chance to sweep the field with you," he said, then swept off with the Marcus and Avery right behind him. Somehow the Gryffindors managed to wait until the three Slytherins were out of sight before they collapsed into fits of laughter.

"Well done, James," said Rigel. "I haven't seen Malfoy lose an argument in ages."

James grinned. "Yeah, well, someone has to remind him he doesn't own the world." He raised a goblet to his lips then paused and looked inside. "Oh, sorry, Remus. This one's yours, isn't it?" They swapped, then James said, "Anyway, I do hope Hufflepuff's new players are good. I want this match to be fun."

Sirius mumbled agreement around his eggs. He wanted an interesting game too, though preferably not one that took too long; he had a paper to write for Professor Slughorn on Shrinking Solutions. Soon James finished eating and left to go to the team changing rooms. Sirius stood and stretched.

"Come on, you guys," he said. "If we leave now we'll get good seats."

The others nodded, Remus quickly drained his goblet while Peter scarfed the last few bites from his plate then they stood and set off for the stands, and not a minute too soon, either. Within five minutes, the whole school had come out, eagerly waiting for the match to start.

A flash of dark, shimmery red caught Sirius's eye and he looked over to see Kaysa and her cousin Chitral standing hesitantly by where Lily Evans and her friend Heather Anderson were sitting. He saw Kaysa's mouth move and Lily looked up at her. She seemed startled but then she smiled and made some reply, nodding at the other two girls who smiled back shyly. As they moved to sit with them, Kaysa caught Sirius watching and her eyes narrowed. She elbowed Chitral and nodded in his direction. Refusing to be embarrassed for being caught looking, Sirius grinned jauntily at them and waved. Kaysa made an irritated noise and Lily looked up. Seeing him, she rolled her eyes and said something to Kaysa that made everyone laugh, then the girls turned back to look expectantly at the field.

"Don't think she likes you," observed Remus casually from beside him. Sirius laughed.

"I'm sure she doesn't," he said, and he proceeded to tell Remus and Peter about running into her on the train.

"They are odd," said Remus when he'd finished. "I don't think I've ever heard either of them speak so much as a word."

"English isn't their first language," said Peter. "I overheard some of the girls talking once, apparently they have fairly thick accents. Maybe they're self-conscious about it."

Sirius stared; sometimes he thought he would never get used to how much Peter just happened to overhear. It was amazing, really. He'd even asked Peter about it once, wanting to know how he did it. Peter's reply had startled him a little.

"It's because I keep quiet and so people don't really notice me," he'd said. "If no one really notices you, then they don't mind talking in front of you, because it's like you're not even there."

Sirius had never really thought about it like that before, but he supposed it made sense. But it still surprised him how well it seemed to work for Peter sometimes. Certainly he and James could never have found out stuff that way. Maybe there were advantages to blending in.

"I suppose that could be," said Remus, meaning the girls. "But even if that's true, they should still talk some. I mean, how else are you suppose to get better at a new language?"

"Yeah, yeah," said Sirius, waving a hand. "Who cares? Look, they're coming out!"

Peter and Remus turned to watch and cheer as the Gryffindor team came out onto the field, followed by the Hufflepuff team and Madame Hooch, the flight instructor and referee.

"And here come the teams!" rang out the voice of Shane Turner, the Ravenclaw fifth year who often did the commentating for quidditch matches. "And there have been some changes in the Hufflepuff line up since last year. Aiden Palmer joins this year as Seeker and Emma Pritchard and Doreen Hoffman join Carson Bates as Chasers."

"Look at Palmer," said Peter to Sirius and Remus. "He's _tiny!"_

"Seekers are supposed to be small," said Sirius shrugging.

"I mean even for a Seeker," Peter persisted. "If a bludger hits him, he's dead."

Sirius scanned the Hufflepuff team again and frowned. Peter was right, even for a Seeker, usually the smallest and fastest member of a team, the boy was small. It wasn't just that he was short, he was delicately built, too. He looked like a small child out there, standing next to the other players. Looking at him, Sirius wondered what on earth had possessed the Hufflepuff captain to put the poor boy on the team, especially in such a dangerous position. Seekers were usually targeted the most by other team's Beaters.

Out on the field, Madame Hooch raised her hand. Her mouth moved as she addressed the players, most likely telling them to play nice. Sirius knew from James that the woman was a stickler for fair play. It could be annoying sometimes, but she was a good referee and she did her best to keep the players safe.

"Looks like their getting ready," Shane whispered into his microphone.

The crowd leaned forward, waiting with baited breath. The captains shook hands then the two teams on the field mounted their brooms.

"The Snitch has been released," continued Shane quietly, building on the anticipation. Then Madame Hooch blew her whistle and threw the Quaffle into play.

"And they're OFF!" Shane bellowed as the players zoomed into the air, the Chasers, James among them, diving for the Quaffle. For a moment all was chaos then —

"And it's Hufflepuff with the Quaffle," came Shane's voice as one of Hufflepuff's new Chasers suddenly soared away from the confusion followed quickly by the other Chasers. "Nice grab for new Chaser Hoffman. She does fly well, doesn't she? And she passes to Bates, passes to Pritchard, back to Bates — Nice dodge! That was close. Good Bludger work by Gryffindor Beater Mills there. And it's Bates with the Quaffle, going for goal. He shoots! And — No! Foiled by Keeper and new Captain, Neal Thomas."

The Hufflepuffs groaned but the Gryffindors cheered. In the stands in front of him, Sirius could hear some of Neal's friends shouting his name.

"And it's Gryffindor in possession. Murray there with the Quaffle, passes to Hart, back to Murray, passes to Potter. Potter in possession, he's streaking up the field, going for goal — He scores! Well done! Ten – zero to Gryffindor. What a talent that Potter is."

Sirius and his friends cheered with the rest of the crowd as James led the Gryffindor Chasers in a victory lap around the stands. Curious, he cast a glance at Lily and Kaysa and the other girls. They were cheering too, but they didn't seem quite as enthusiastic as the rest of the Gryffindors, who were shouting their approval at James. Sirius rolled his eyes at them, then turned to Remus, who had just bumped him for about the third time.

"What's the matter with you?" he asked frowning. "You keep squirming."

"Sorry," said Remus, who looked a bit tense and uncomfortable.

"You okay?" asked Sirius. If it had been Peter he wouldn't have worried. There was always something bugging Peter, but, except for the werewolf thing, Remus was usually fine.

"I think something at breakfast must not have agreed with me, that's all," said Remus. "I'm fine, really."

"Okay," said Sirius slowly. He wasn't about to press the matter just now, but he made a mental note to himself to keep an eye on his friend, just in case.

Soon the score was seventy-forty to Gryffindor and Sirius was impressed. Hufflepuff's new team was much better than last year's had been. True, they weren't as good as James was, but they were holding their own pretty well for now. Suddenly the crowd gasped and pointed. Sirius looked up and saw Aiden Palmer streaking downwards in a fantastic dive, followed quickly by Kynthia Chaloner, the Gryffindor Seeker.

"What are they doing?" shouted Peter.

"No idea!" Sirius called back, staring through a pair of binoculars, scanning the field for any sign of the snitch.

"They can't keep going like that," said Remus looking worried. "They'll crash!"

"No they won't!" said Sirius, pointing and handing the binoculars to Remus. "Look!" He'd found the Snitch; it was hovering about almost lazily right in the middle of the playing field.

"Oh, good," said Remus sardonically. "So they'll only crash into other players, not the ground."

Sirius groaned. Remus was right; unless they pulled up or else got very lucky, both Seekers were heading to smash straight into the other players, who were too intent on their part of the game to have noticed the yellow and scarlet blurs careening towards them. Half the crowd was yelling, trying to warn them, but it was too many voices all at once to make any sense. Sirius thought he could hear Shane yelling too, but even with his microphone he couldn't get over the sound of the anxious spectators. Peter had his hands over his mouth. Remus was gripping the binoculars so tightly his knuckles were white. Sirius leaned forward in his seat. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he could see Lily and some of her friends leaping to their feet, but he wasn't about to take his eyes away from the game to check — the Seekers were going to crash for sure.

But they didn't. Almost as if it had seen them coming, the Snitch had taken off, flitting through the other players in an almost teasing fashion. And now Sirius saw why the Hufflepuff captain had taken Palmer on. Instead of swerving to avoid the mass of players and lose the Snitch, the tiny boy began to weave his way through them at a speed that would have been impossible for anyone larger, following the Snitch on its dangerous path. The crowd gasped at this display of talent, but, impressive as it was, Sirius was more worried about Kynthia; if the tall, blonde haired girl tried to follow Palmer she'd never make it. But Kynthia was way smarter than that; instead of trying to make her way through the players she dove straight through them, swooping below them, then rocketing back up again to cut Palmer off, forcing him to swerve up and away to avoid hitting her. The Hufflepuffs groaned and the Gryffindors cheered, the Snitch lost for the moment.

"That's our Kynthia!" shouted Merga, sitting a few seats in front of Sirius and his friends with Frank, his Ravenclaw girlfriend, Alice, Skye O'Hara, one of the Ravanclaw Chasers, and Felicia Patterson, all of whom were cheering very loudly. They were all good friends of Kynthia's and Sirius was sure they were relieved she was so quick thinking. Sirius grinned and cheered himself; Kynthia was a great Seeker, a lot of people had been surprised when Neal was made captain instead of her, but since Kynthia seemed fine with it no one commented. Actually, Kynthia had been offered captaincy of the Gryffindor team — Sirius knew because James had told him — but she'd turned it down, saying Neal was much more organized and people-oriented than she was. Neal had argued that he wasn't good enough, but Kynthia had insisted. Finally Neal had agreed on the condition that Kynthia agreed to help him out with things like strategy, which he said he wasn't so good at. So Neal had become captain, and Kynthia was happy to advise him so long as she wasn't the one responsible for keeping track of things like practice schedules.

"That was close!" Remus shouted over the noise. Sirius nodded.

"I know," he said. "No wonder Plamer's on the team. He might give Kynthia a run for her money." Remus nodded, his eyes back on the players. James had the Quaffle again and was tearing up the field toward the goal hoops. Sirius grinned confidently. A second later, Gryffindor was another ten points up, and then another. The appearance of Palmer's unexpected skill seemed to have spurred James and the others to new heights, and soon the score was one hundred and ten to fifty. No one had called a time-out, but Sirius suspected that the Gryffindor team was trying — by mutual if silent agreement — to pull as far ahead as they could just in case Palmer got to the Snitch before Kynthia, a possibility that suddenly seemed much more likely now. Kynthia herself was clearly keeping a close eye on Palmer, not tailing him precisely, but never letting him get too far away either. Gryffindor scored again, making the score one twenty to fifty.

"Maybe we can win anyway," said Peter hopefully. "Even if Hufflepuff gets the Snitch, I mean. We're pretty far ahead."

"Not enough," said Remus, shaking his head, his eyes narrowed. "We'd need a lead of more than a hundred and fifty, and right now we're only up by seventy."

"You mean sixty," Sirius corrected as Hufflepuff scored. Then he swore softly. Remus and Peter looked questioningly at him. For answer, Sirius pointed back at the field where Palmer and Kynthia were racing towards the Snitch yet again.

"Shoot!" said Remus. "It's too soon."

"I know," groaned Sirius. "And the Beaters are on the wrong side of the pitch."

"Come on, Kynthia!" Felicia, Frank, and Merga were all on their feet, shouting encouragement to their friend, but to no avail. Palmer was just too far ahead of her. As she drew even with the tail of his broom his fingers closed over the tiny golden ball and the game was over. Hufflepuff had won.

The stands exploded; the Hufflepuffs were screaming, thrilled with their victory. The Gryffindors all groaned, but then cheered for their team's valiant attempt. The rest of the crowd was yelling too, clearly pleased with the exciting and unexpected way the match had turned out. Sirius clapped a hand to his forehead.

"Oh man!" he said turning to Remus and Peter. "Where did Hufflepuff find a Seeker that good?"

"No idea," replied Remus, widening his eyes, "but — I mean, wow!"

"No kidding," said Peter. "I wonder what year Palmer is?"

"Second year, obviously," said Sirius, throwing Peter a look. Sometimes he just didn't use his head. "I mean, do you really think Hufflepuff would have waited to put him on the team if he was eligible? After what the last two years were like? No way."

"Oh, yeah, I guess you're right," said Peter, looking down.

Remus frowned. "But isn't it his choice whether to try out or not?" he asked.

"Yeah. So?" said Sirius.

"So he could be older and just never tried out before," said his friend shrugging.

"Well, yeah, I guess," allowed Sirius. "But it's hardly likely."

"Okay, whatever," said Peter, putting up his hands. "I'm sorry I asked. I've changed my mind; I don't care. Let's just go and find James."

Sirius laughed. "Yeah, okay," he said, turning and beginning to weave his way through the crowd out of the stands, the others following him closely. As they neared the entrance to the stairs that would take them out to the field below, someone jostled Sirius from behind and he stumbled forward into Lily Evans. She turned to look at him, her bright green eyes flashing.

"Sorry, Evans," said Sirius rather lazily. There was hardly any point in apologizing to her, she was bound and determined to think the worst of him as far as he could tell. He half expected her to return with some insult or remark about how he must have pushed her on purpose, but instead she simply rolled her eyes and turned back around, forging through the mass of people with her friends. Watching them walk off down the wooden stairs, he noticed that Kaysa, the girl from the train, and her cousin, Chitral, were still with them and he chuckled to himself, finding it amusing that the first friend Kaysa seemed to have made should be someone whose reaction to him had been almost identical to her own. They even looked alike some.

"Oi! What's the hold up?" called Peter from behind him. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"There's kind of a lot of people to get through here, Peter," he said.

"So?" said Peter, as though this shouldn't have made a difference.

"He means it's crowded, Peter," said Remus patiently.

"I can see that, Remus, thanks," said Peter. He sounded slightly annoyed now. "What I want to know is why we're not moving."

Sirius and Remus exchanged glances.

"Alright then, Peter," said Sirius. "Come up and find a way through yourself, if you think it's so easy."

"Okay," said Peter, sliding easily around Remus and then Sirius to get in front. "Come on, let's go." He set off, the other two close behind. Sirius was surprised at the ease with which Peter's slightly plump figure seemed to slip through the smallest gaps in the mass of people before them.

"How'd you do that?" he asked as soon as they reached the grounds below and had got free of the crowd, which was much sooner than he would have expected.

"Do what?" asked Peter.

"That! Back there," said Sirius, pointing at the crowd now behind them. "How'd you get us through that so fast?"

"Yeah," agreed Remus, nodding and staring at the crowd in wonder. "I thought we'd be stuck in that forever."

Peter shrugged. "I don't like crowds," he said. "I guess I've just learned how to get away from them quick."

"I guess so," said Sirius emphatically. "Well done, mate."

"Yeah, whatever," said Peter, blushing slightly. "Come on, where d'you suppose James is?"

"Locker rooms," said Remus. "This way, right?" They headed over to the far side of the pitch and stopped by the door.

"Maybe we should wait outside," said Remus, hesitantly. Peter nodded. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"You can wait," he said to his friends then, ignoring their protests, stepped through the door into the Gryffindor changing rooms.

"Oi!" said someone. "What are you doing in here?"

Sirius glanced over. It was one of the Beaters, Xander Pearce. "I'm looking for James," he told the older boy. Xander frowned at him, put on his glasses, then recognition dawned in his face.

"Potter!" he called loudly. "Friend's here for you!"

"Eh?" came James's voice, his dark, untidy head poking around a corner.

"Hey James," said Sirius, grinning at his friend.

"Sirius! Hey," said James, coming out from around the corner and pulling off his Quidditch robes. "Where are the others?"

"Waiting outside. They're not sure we're allowed in."

James laughed. "Those two," he said. "Well, we'll break them of their law abiding ways eventually." Sirius grinned.

"Since when is being a bad influence something to be proud of?"

"Oh, come on Kynthia," said James. "We're not _that_ bad."

"Oh no," said Kynthia. "Not at all. Just in and out of detention every other week, that's all." But she was smiling.

"Hey, Kynthia," said Sirius, grinning at her. "Nice flying out there. We all thought you'd crash for sure."

"We lost anyway," said the older girl, running a hand through her long blonde hair and grimacing.

"So what?" said Sirius bracingly. "That Palmer kid took everyone by surprise. He's really good, and it was still pretty close."

"Yeah, but still… I guess I feel like I let the team down."

"Don't be stupid," said James. "You flew great. We can't always win. Anyway things will be more interesting this way."

Kynthia blinked at him. "Er, thanks, James … I think…"

James laughed. "No problem," he said. He pulled on his school robes and turned to Sirius. "Come on, let's go collect Remus and Peter. I'm hungry and I've still got a ton of homework to do."

Sirius laughed and followed James back out the door. Their friends were pretty much right where Sirius had left them a moment ago. Peter was hovering by the door, bouncing impatiently. Remus had apparently got tired of waiting or something because he had sat down on the ground, leaning against the side of the building with his eyes closed and his knees pulled up to his chest.

"Honestly, you guys," said James, "you could have come in. I mean, it's not like we get naked in there or anything."

"No, but I thought only the teams were allowed in there or something," said Peter.

"So?" said James, grinning rakishly. "Get up, Remus, let's go."

"Hm?" said Remus, looking up at them. 'Oh, yeah, right. Sure." His voice sounded tight and when he got to his feet he seemed to be moving funny. Sirius frowned, wondering if it was just him. James certainly didn't seem to notice anything, although, there again, James wasn't always the most observant person. As they moved off back towards the castle, Sirius fell back on purpose, watching Remus as discreetly as possible, trying to figure out if the boy was just stiff or of something was wrong. Then he remembered Remus saying he thought something from breakfast wasn't sitting right with him and supposed maybe he was still feeling a bit ill. Not wanting to pester Remus, he decided to let it go for now, but he would still keep an eye on him just in case. After all, no one else seemed to be feeling sick and they'd all eaten pretty much the same things.

When they got back to their dormitory they all dragged their homework to the library and set up at one of the tables. Sirius and James worked on their Potions essays while Remus, who had already finished most of his homework, helped Peter with an assignment from Professor McGonagall. By the time they finished, it was nearly dinner. James complained that they had wasted a beautiful day studying, but Sirius didn't mind. It meant that they would be completely free tomorrow. He was more worried about Remus, who seemed to be getting worse. He looked pale and peaky. If it had just been something he ate shouldn't he have been feeling better by now? James and Peter had noticed too. They had asked him at some point if he was all right. Remus had told them he was fine, just tired, but Sirius wasn't buying it. At dinner, Remus picked at his plate, hardly eating anything, and looking out of it.

"Er, Remus?" Sirius said finally. "I think you're missing a key step to this whole eating thing. You know, the part where the food actually makes it to your mouth?"

"What?" said Remus, blinking at him. Then he looked at his plate. "Oh," he said. "Not really hungry, I guess."

"Oh, come on, Remus," said James. "You've been out of it all day. What's going on?"

"Nothing," Remus insisted. "I'm just not feeling that great. That's all."

"Well, you don't look very good," said James bluntly. "I think you should go see Madame Pomfrey."

Remus rolled his eyes. "I'm fine, James. Seriously."

Sirius exchanged a look with James. They agreed; Remus was going to the hospital wing one way or another. They wouldn't drag him there, not yet, anyway, but it was definitely an option.

"What are we doing tomorrow?" asked Peter, reaching for a éclair for dessert.

"Dunno," said James. "Guess it depends on the weather. If it's nice out I want to go flying."

"Sounds good to me," said Sirius. He wasn't on the team but he like to fly and he wasn't bad at it either. His main problem was occasionally getting caught up in seeing how fast he could go. "Bet we could get enough people together to play some three on three."

"I bet Cam and Liam would play," said Remus. "You know they like to fly."

"Yeah," said James slowly as they stood to leave, "but you know what a spaz Cam is."

"So we'll put him on your team," said Sirius. "He can be your handicap."

"What?" James exclaimed. "I don't — I mean that's not what I —"

Sirius laughed. "I'm kidding, mate," he said. James rolled his eyes and punched Sirius lightly in the arm. They reached the staircase that went up to Gryffindor tower and began their assent.

"Not that I couldn't beat you all anyway," said James loftily a moment later.

"Oh yeah?" said Sirius, raising his eyebrows. "Do you know a way to be in two places at once then? I mean, I know you're good, but even you can't score goals, block goals, and catch the Snitch all at once."

"Hm," said James, frowning mock seriously. "Guess that does put a dent in it. Maybe there's a spell to duplicate yourself with."

"Password?" demanded the Fat Lady as they reached the portrait hole.

"Er," said James. "Shoot. They just changed it again. I forget. Hey, Remus, what's the new —" He stopped, looking back at the boy. "Bloody hell, Remus, you look terrible. Go to Madame Pomfrey already."

Sirius turned around. James was right. Remus looked much worse than he had at dinner. He was worse than pale and he was sweating slightly.

"I'm fine," Remus insisted. He didn't sound good either; his voice was strained, caught somewhere between pain and utter exhaustion.

"No you're not!" Sirius began. "You're —"

"If you're not going in, then at least move so the rest of us can get by," said a voice. All four of them looked around to find Lily standing there, her friend Heather and a few others, including Kaysa and her cousin, with her. She looked annoyed.

"Sorry," said Sirius as he and his friends stepped aside. "Honestly, Remus," he started again as the girls filed through the portrait hole, "you — " He stopped again. Kaysa had just walked right by him and clapped a hand to Remus's forehead.

"I'm not sick," Remus protested, pulling away from her. Kaysa frowned and her nostrils flared. Her cousin, Chitral, came over too. She eyed Remus, then tugged Kaysa's sleeve and said something that Sirius didn't understand at all, but that sounded urgent. Kaysa nodded, made some reply, then turned to Sirius, James, and Peter and said something to them sharply.

"What?" said James. "Whatever language you're speaking, we can't understand it." Kaysa gave him an exasperated look and pointed at Remus. The look on her face and the tone of what she'd said clicked somewhere in Sirius's brain.

"Oh," he said. "I think we're being scolded. See, Remus? Even they think you look awful." He turned to Kaysa. "We keep telling him he should go to Madame Pomfrey," he told her. "He just won't listen."

"I'll be fine," said Remus, who looked embarrassed by all the attention. Kaysa snorted loudly and smacked him lightly upside the head.

"Hey!" Remus protested. "What was that for?"

"She says you're being an idiot," Sirius translated for her. "Right?" he added, looking to the girl for confirmation. Kaysa gave him a vaguely surprised look, then nodded. Sirius grinned. Kaysa blinked at him, then grinned back. Or at least she showed him her teeth. It wasn't precisely a friendly expression, it seemed more like a challenge than anything else, but at least she wasn't glaring at him anymore. Still wearing her odd smile, Kaysa pointed to Remus, then to him and James, and then down the corridor back towards the stairs.

"You think we should take him to the hospital wing?" Sirius guessed. She nodded again.

"I agree," said James. "Come on, Remus, let's go." Sirius nodded. He and James each grabbed one of Remus's arms and together they lead him firmly back down the stairs, Peter following quietly in their wake.

"Okay, that was weird," said James as soon the girls were out of earshot.

"Yeah," Peter agreed. "How'd you know what she was on about?"

"Oh, come on," said Sirius, throwing a glance over his shoulder at him. "I mean, it was really pretty obvious, wasn't it?"

"Well," said James, "I mean, I guess it wasn't too hard to guess what she meant, but still, why can't she just speak English? I mean, she obviously understood what we were saying."

"I'm sure they can speak English," said Sirius as they rounded the corner to the hospital wing. "I think she was just having a bit of fun with us, seeing if we could figure it out. Besides, didn't you hear when they were talking earlier? I don't know what it was, but I'd say Peter was right; English is not their first language."

"They can speak English," said Remus from between them. "I saw them talking some to Lily and her friends at the match today. They must be able to understand it better than they can speak it because they kept having to stop and start over."

They entered the hospital wing. Sirius and James pushed Remus onto one of the beds. Peter hurried off to find Madame Pomfrey.

"When did you have time to notice all that?" Sirius wanted to know.

"Just because you can't think about more than one thing at a time doesn't mean the rest of us suffer the same failing," said Remus loftily. Sirius stared at him. He sounded totally exhausted and looked even worse, and he was making jokes? Sirius wondered if that was a good sign or not. The way he saw it, either Remus wasn't as bad as they thought, or else it was way worse.

"Alright, then" came the voice of Madame Pomfrey. Sirius turned to find her bustling towards them with Peter just a few steps behind. "What have you boys been up to this time?"

"It's not us, Madame Pomfrey," said James stepping to one side so she could see Remus.

"I see," she said, eyeing Remus critically. "What seems to be the problem?"

Remus opened his mouth, but James cut him off. "We don't know. He didn't want to come but we made him. He's been weird all afternoon."

"Earlier," said Sirius. "I think it started during the Quidditch match."

"No," said Remus, sighing. He seemed to have resigned himself to being looked at. "I mean, I felt worse as the day went on, but it started right after breakfast. I hoped maybe it was just something I'd eaten. I don't know, maybe I'm coming down with something."

Sirius frowned at his friend; now that he wasn't trying to pretend he was fine, it was easy to see how lousy he felt.

"He'll be okay, right?" he asked the nurse.

"Leave him to me," said Madame Pomfrey reassuringly. "He's probably just caught a touch of the flu. Some medicine and a few good night of sleep and he'll be right as rain." She turned to Remus. "Here, put these on while I go fetch a potion." She handed him a pair of striped pajamas then bustled off again.

"Right," said Remus, pulling off his school robes and putting on the pajamas. "You lot go back to the dormitory. I'll be fine."

"But —" James began.

"Look," said Remus, cutting him off. "You know she won't let you stay long anyway, and I'm tired. Just go, I'll be fine. Come and visit me tomorrow if I'm not out of here. I'll be bored as anything."

"Out, you three," said Madame Pomfrey, coming back from her office with a flask of potion for Remus. "This boy needs to rest."

Remus gulped down the mouthful of potion she poured out for him and made a face.

"Why does everything you have taste so nasty?" he asked her.

"Because it's good for you," said the nurse with a faint smile. She turned back to Sirius, James, and Peter. "Go on," she said. "Off to bed with you." The three of them exchanged glances, debating. Madame Pomfrey gave them a stern look.

"Alright," said James finally. "See you tomorrow, Remus."

Remus, whose eyes were already drooping, waved vaguely in acknowledgement. They turned and left, heading back to Gryffindor tower.

"Do you really think he'll be okay?" Peter fretted.

"Of course," said James confidently. "Madame Pomfrey can cure anything. Oh bugger, the password. Um…"

"Snergleroot," said Sirius, remembering. The Fat Lady swung forward. "What is a snergleroot, anyway," he asked as they clambered through.

"No idea," said James. "Honestly, I think they just make this stuff up sometimes."

There weren't many people left in the common room now, though it wasn't all that late. There were a few groups of people clustered around the fire doing homework and one game of wizard's chess, but other than that not much was going on.

"Well, this is lively," James remarked dryly, one eyebrow raised.

"No kidding," said Sirius looking around incredulously. "I guess everyone's tired or something. Oh, now what?" he added slightly exasperated as Kaysa and Chitral came up to them. Kaysa threw him a look of utmost contempt.

"Remus?" she asked. Sirius blinked in surprise. Aside from earlier when she'd been talking that foreign gabble, he'd never heard her say anything. She'd pronounced Remus's name a bit oddly, but he couldn't place the accent yet.

"Madame Pomfrey's looking after him," said James looking taken aback by their sudden interest. "I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Yeah," said Sirius. "She says he probably just caught a bit of a flu or something."

The two girls exchanged looks, nodded at them, then wandered off up the staircase to the girls' dormitories.

"I thought they didn't like us," said James, bewildered.

"So did I, mate," said Sirius, shrugging helplessly. "Maybe they just want to make sure it's nothing catching or something."

"Oh, whatever," said Peter dismissively. "They're girls. They don't make sense. Come on, I'm getting tired. Let's go see if Cam and Liam are up for a game or two of Exploding Snap before bed or something."

"Yeah, okay," said James, yawning and stretching. "We can ask them if they want to fly tomorrow too."

Sirius grinned. James really had a one-track mind when it came to Quidditch. Yawning some more, the three of them made their way up the stairs.

* * *

**_(Kaysa)_**

"You don't think they'll figure it out, do you?"

Kaysa glanced over at her cousin.

"What? You mean about that Lupin kid?" she asked. Chitral nodded. Kaysa pursed her lips, thinking. Or wishing, rather. The truth was she already knew the answer to the question; she just kept hoping that another answer would present itself.

"Kays?" Chital prompted. Kaysa sighed.

"No," she said heavily. "I don't think they'll figure it out. If it's weird even to us, how on earth are they supposed to know?"

"So what do we do? You know we can't interfere. Besides, if it's really as odd as all that, we might just make things worse."

"Oh, come on Chi, you smelled that, same as me," said Kaysa, rolling her eyes. "You know as well as I do that whatever he was drugged with it's not doing what it was supposed to. These wizards and their potions! It was probably a student, and you know if you mess up a potion it can have serious consequences. What if it kills him?"

"But Kaysa!" Chitral burst out, "How would anyone have even slipped him anything? And why? I mean, his friends might be annoying, but as far as I know Remus Lupin's never done anything to piss anyone off that much."

Kaysa pursed her lips, thinking. Her cousin had a point; why would anyone want to poison Lupin? And when would they have had the chance? After all, potions needed to be ingested and even a total idiot wasn't likely to just drink something someone gave them, and the boy wasn't an idiot, she knew that.

She closed her eyes, running through the day's events; going over everything she could remember where Lupin had been present.

"Do we know when he started seeming off?" she asked her cousin.

Chitral shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "He was weird at dinner, so before that."

"Right," said Kaysa, "and we didn't see them at lunch. What about the match? They were somewhere behind us, remember?"

"Gees, why do you do things backwards, Kays?" Chitral wanted to know. "I wasn't paying attention to them at the match. I was watching the game."

"I go backwards because it works," said Kaysa flatly. "We're trying to narrow down the poisoner's window of opportunity here. We know he was fine yesterday and then this morning at breakfast he seemed okay too —"

She stopped, a nasty suspicion taking hold in her mind.

"What?" asked Chitral.

"Breakfast. This morning," said Kaysa slowly, thinking fast. "There was a scene, remember? Those Slytherins who came over to try and intimidate Potter or something?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So," said Kaysa, "what if whatever it was wasn't meant for Lupin at all? What if it was for Potter?"

"Like, supposed to knock him out of commission for the game, you mean?" said Chitral. "That seems little farfetched, Kaysa. I mean, why would they care? They weren't playing today."

"Well, no, but if you can pick your battles why wouldn't you?" said Kaysa darkly. "I don't like Potter much, but there's no denying he's a damn good player. And the rest of the team's pretty good too. Slytherin has to play whoever won this match next. No one knew that Hufflepuff had found such a good Seeker for this year, so they would have thought that Gryffindor was going to be the greater threat."

"Maybe," said Chitral, still looking skeptical, "But even so —"

She stopped abruptly. Kaysa looked at her curiously. Her cousin's jade green eyes were narrowed, her brow furrowed in thought.

"What is it, Chi?" Kaysa asked, recognizing the signs of a brain flash, especially so soon after her own.

"They switched," Chitral replied slowly.

"What?" said Kaysa blankly.

"At breakfast, after the Slytherins left," said Chitral. "Potter and Lupin, they switched goblets — said they had gotten them mixed up or something. I mean, it could just be a coincidence, but —"

"Ha!" said Kaysa. "As if."

"Ai," said Chitral. "You could really be right. Ai-ya! I mean that's cold!"

Kaysa shrugged.

"They're Slytherins," she said.

"Oh, come on, Kaysa," Chitral protested. "They can't all be bad."

"Maybe not," said Kaysa. She supposed that Chitral was right, really, but she, certainly, had yet to see any evidence of it. "But even if that's true, they're still human and anyway, the ones over at breakfast were Lucius's crowd. You can't possibly tell me you think they're anything other than bad news."

"No," said Chitral heavily. "No, you're right — about them, at least. I guess I just don't like the house biases, that's all."

"Whatever," said Kaysa, who couldn't help thinking that while maybe the biases weren't true for every individual that didn't mean those biases didn't come from somewhere. "So now we know the how and the why. Now we need to figure out what we're going to do about it."

"What do you mean, what are we going to do about it?" asked Chitral. "You know we can't do anything directly. Can't we just tell one of the teachers or something?"

"Oh yeah," said Kaysa sarcastically. She opened her eyes wide and put on a sweet tone of innocence, "'Sorry to bother you, Madame Pomfrey, but you see, the Lupin kid smells weird so we think he may have been poisoned.'" She snorted. "That'd go over so well, don't you think?"

"I guess you're right," Chitral sighed. "So what do we do? We can't do anything, you know."

"You mean we can't be caught," Kaysa corrected her.

"Kaysa!" Chitral protested.

"What?" Kaysa challenged. "The other students here sneak out from time to time, why shouldn't we? Anyway, you know we're way less likely to be caught than any of them are."

"Even so, we're still in huge trouble if we _do _get caught," Chitral cautioned. "And even if we don't —"

"We won't," Kaysa interjected firmly.

"Even if we don't," Chitral pressed on, "we still probably can't do anything. Neither of us knows enough about Potions to be absolutely certain of what they gave him." Seeing her cousin open her mouth to object she added quickly, "Kays, I know you're good at it, but they still do things differently here. What if we guess and we're wrong? We could kill him!"

"And if we don't do something he could be just as badly off as if we did and got it wrong," Kaysa argued. "Look, let's at least go and have a look. If it's really something we can't handle, we'll tell Dumbledore or something, okay?"

"And if it is something you think you can handle?" asked Chitral, eyeing her cousin almost suspiciously. "What will we do then?"

"If there's time, we make an antidote. If not," she paused then stuck her chin out determinedly. "If not, we'll have to do a purge. That should work on just about anything."

Chitral wrinkled her nose; purges were highly unpleasant, but Kaysa was right, it probably would work.

"Alright," she said finally. "But if we get caught I promise to hex you into next week."

Kaysa nodded acknowledgement, a faint smile ghosting across her face, then turned and lead the way out the portrait hole and down to the Hospital Wing. Chitral, grumbling quietly, followed.

* * *

A/N: okay, so if this feels like it cuts off a bit abruptly or something, that's probably because i actually meant to have more in this chapter, but i've been told that after a certain point chapters just feel too long or something so i'm trying to limit myself.

also, as i have said, this is a work in progress and i would love any feedback (so long as it's constructive), and please feel free to point out any spelling or major grammar errors i might have missed, or ask questions about anything that seems unclear or whatever.

thanks for reading ^_^

~SilverKitsFire


	4. Advanced Reasoning

disclaimer: HP and it's characters are not mine, just Kaysa, Chitral, Chasta, and Shasta

A/N: okay, to anyone who has not yet taken chemistry or 6th or 7th grade science, or anyone who has and really hated it, i'm sorry. but this has always bugged me about Transfiguration and so i felt that i needed to deal with it... sorry!

anyway, hope you all enjoy the new chapter! if there are any questions about anything feel free to ask ^_^

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_**Advanced Reasoning**_

Sunday morning after breakfast Sirius, James, and Peter went to the hospital wing to check on Remus. They were pleased to see their friend sitting up and eating some kind of soup. He smiled broadly when he saw them.

"I was wondering when you lot would show up," he greeted them. "I thought I'd have to wait until at least lunch for you to remember me."

"What?" said Peter, looking hurt. James and Sirius laughed.

"Oh, come on now," said James, grinning. "We're not _that_ bad! Are we?"

"Well…" said Remus slowly, a glimmer of mischief in his blue eyes, then he saw the worried look on Peter's face. "No," he said, "not usually, anyway. Don't look like that, Peter, I'm only joking."

"Oh," said Peter, looking both embarrassed and relieved.

"Honestly, Peter," said Sirius. "You're so gullible sometimes."

"Shut up!" said Peter rather hotly. "I just don't think it's funny to say your friends aren't good friends."

That caused a slightly awkward silence. Finally James asked Remus, "So, when are you getting out of here? I mean, it sure looks like you're feeling better."

Remus sighed and pulled a face. "I feel fine," he said. "But Madame Pomfrey wants to keep me here for the rest of the day to be sure."

"What?" demanded Sirius, flabbergasted. "But you're better. What's she want to keep you for?"

"Dunno," said Remus, shrugging. "Honestly, I think she's still not quite sure what was wrong with me and she's just being cautious or something like that. Anyway I'm stuck here til dinnertime. What have you all got planned for the day?"

"We talked some of the others into a three-on-three game of Quidditch," said James.

"Oh yeah," said Remus, his brow furrowing. "You said something about that yesterday, didn't you? Who's flying in my place?"

"Rigel," said Sirius. "It'll be Cam, Liam, and James against me, Peter and Rigel."

"Should be good," said Remus. "You guys will have to come back later and tell me about it."

"Of course," Sirius promised. Remus sounded cheerful but Sirius was sure that he was not at all looking forward to being cooped up in here all day. But he was Remus and wouldn't want to ruin his friend's plans by asking them to keep him company. Sirius figured that coming later and regaling him with tales of Quidditch later was the least they could do.

"Yeah," said James, a wicked grin on his face. "We'll be sure to bring you some homework too."

"Bring your own!" Remus retorted. "I'm not the one who spends all my time goofing off and getting myself in detention."

James just laughed. "Whatever," he said. "I still get good grades. Anyway, we'll catch you later."

"Glad you're feeling better, mate," Sirius told his friend as he moved to follow James and Peter out the door.

They went to see Remus again after lunch to tell him about the game — James's team had won, but only just. Having Rigel on the team had helped Sirius and Peter hold their own pretty well. They also brought their homework and Remus's, which made him laugh. They spent the afternoon finishing up what work they had left and then playing wizard's chess while they waited for Madame Pomfrey to release their friend. She grumbled a bit, but in the end declared Remus fine and cleared him to leave. Happy to be free and by then starving, they all hurried down to dinner.

At the long Gryffindor table they sat down by Cam and Liam and began loading their plates. When they were about halfway done, Lily, Heather, Kaysa, and Chitral stood to go. As the girls walked past Chitral nudged her cousin and nodded toward Sirius and his friends. Kaysa looked over frowning, then her eyes fell on Remus. Breaking from the group of girls they walked over. Kaysa slid her fingers under Remus's chin, turning him to face her and placing a hand on his forehead, her eyes inspecting him with clinical detachment. Evidently satisfied that he was better, she smiled — rather smugly, Sirius thought — nodded, and left, Chitral following quickly in her wake.

"What was that about?" asked a bewildered Remus, staring after them. "I thought they didn't like us!"

"Beats me," said James, shrugging. "But they seemed worried about you last night."

"Yeah," Sirius added. "They actually spoke to ask after you when we got back from taking you to the hospital wing."

"What?" asked Remus. "Really? They said something? To you?"

"Yeah, really" said Sirius. "Not that they said much. Just your name. But they did seem . . . concerned."

"Huh! Weird," said Remus.

"I still don't see why you all care," Peter complained. "I thought we agreed last night that girls just don't make sense."

"Maybe," shrugged James, "but these ones seem to make even less sense than most."

It was true, too, Sirius thought as he clambered into bed that night. Lily he understood. She didn't like them — well, mostly just him and James — because she thought they were arrogant and mean. Sirius didn't agree with this assessment but he could understand it, or at least understand how that explained the way Lily treated him and his friends. But Kaysa and her cousin… they seemed to be another thing altogether somehow. He wasn't sure what their deal was. Then he shrugged to himself; Peter was right. They were girls, girls never made sense. Who cared? Turning on his side, he sighed and let sleep wash over him like the tide.

Breakfast the next morning was a rather quiet affair. Monday mornings were never anyone's favorite and besides, neither Sirius nor James were exactly what one would call 'morning people.'

"Oh, quit yawning, would you?" complained Remus, who was oddly a bit of an early riser. "You're making _my _jaw hurt just watching."

"Sorry," James mumbled tiredly. "It's not exactly as though I can help it, you know."

Sirius, now yawning hugely himself, nodded his agreement. Remus just rolled his eyes at them.

"Honestly," he muttered almost to himself, "I'm stuck sick in the Hospital Wing all weekend but you two are the ones who act like you're exhausted. I mean, really!"

"Well, yeah," said James. "But that means you spent most of the weekend resting."

"Exactly," agreed Sirius, making sure to keep his face perfectly straight. "While _we_, on the other hand, were kept slaves to our social obligations."

Remus, Peter, and even James all turned to stare at his determinedly deadpan expression. Sirius tried, but he only hold it for so long before his mouth twitched. They all exploded into laughter.

"'Slaves to our social obligations!'" James roared, slapping the table. "Merlin, Sirius, where do you get this stuff?"

Sirius just grinned. He wasn't too keen to know what his friends would say if they knew that he had actually gotten it from one of his aunts, who actually said things like that and meant them.

When they'd finished eating, Sirius and his friends picked up their schoolbags and went with the rest of the Gryffindors to their History of Magic class. Sirius could never make up his mind about whether or not having his most boring class first thing in the morning was a blessing or a curse. On the one hand, at least he got to get it over with quickly and having it first meant that he was never stuck in here during the late afternoon when his brain was so tired from everything else that he couldn't have paid attention even if he'd tried. On the other hand, it meant that, on mornings such as this, where he seemed more tired than usual, it was almost impossible not to dose off.

"Ow!" he hissed, as Remus pinched him for the third time. "Stop it already, would you?"

"At least keep your eyes open," Remus retorted quietly. 'If Binns notices you napping in his class I won't cover for you."

Sirius snorted. "Binns wouldn't notice if an earthquake shook the whole classroom apart," he whispered back.

Remus bit his lips together to stop himself laughing. Sirius grinned. Professor Binns was a ghost and the most boring teacher at Hogwarts. He floated before his classes and droned on about giant wars or goblin uprisings in his far-away voice until the bell rang and always seemed surprised when it did. Almost no one ever managed to pay attention to him for very long but Binns didn't seem to notice or care. Sirius rather suspected that the man would get up and lecture even the whole class never showed up.

When the bell finally rang, startling Sirius from his monotone induced stupor and Professor Binns from his supposedly educational droning, the class staggered to its feet and made its way out the door, everyone still trying to shake themselves from the trance that was History of Magic.

"Is it just me," Sirius asked as they made their way through the corridors to Transfiguration, "or did that seem worse than usual?"

"Definitely not just you," James assured him. "My brain feels like mush." Remus and Peter nodded.

"Maybe everyone's just tired after the first Quidditch match," Peter suggested. He was looking at James, who just shrugged and mumbled something unintelligible. "Or maybe it's something to do with Mondays," Peter tried again. "Or maybe —"

"Oh, do shut up," Sirius told him grumpily.

"Yeah," agreed James. "We're already tired enough, don't make it worse."

Peter flushed slightly and looked down at his feet. The stung look on his face made Sirius feel a bit guilty; it wasn't Peter's fault he was in a bad mood.

"Oh, never mind them, Peter," said Remus quickly. "You know they never mean things like that. They're just too tired, right guys?" he added, shooting a sharp look at Sirius and James.

"Yeah, sorry, Peter," said Sirius. "We didn't mean it. Right, James?"

"Huh?" said James, who clearly hadn't been paying much attention. His eyes seemed to be focused on something out the window. "What?"

Sirius kicked him lightly.

"Oh, yeah, of course, sorry."

It wasn't very good as apologies went, but Peter seemed happier so Sirius let it go.

"Come on," said Remus, changing the subject. "We don't want to be late for McGonagall."

He started to walk faster and Peter quickly moved to follow him, but James hung back. He tugged Sirius's sleeve, a glint of mischief in his hazel eyes.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Look," said James nodding out at the grounds. "Snivellus."

Sirius looked, frowning. Snivellus was his and James's nickname for Snape, the Slytherin boy they had met and been enemies with since their very first ride on the Hogwarts Express. Sure enough, there he was, all awkward angles and long greasy black hair, stumping his way through the vegetable patch with the other Slytherins on his way to the greenhouses, but Sirius wasn't sure why James was finding this so interesting.

"Yeah, so?"

"So…" said James, grinning wickedly. "Didn't you say you'd been practicing the trip jinx?"

"Yeah," said Sirius, feeling the beginnings of a grin on his own face. He had a feeling he knew where James was going with this.

"Think you could hit him from here?"

"I don't know," said Sirius. "Let's find out."

He pulled out his wand and took aim out the window, then hesitated for a second. Probably this wasn't the best way to use magic, tripping up some poor sod. But then, he thought, it _is _Snape. He adjusted his aim and whispered the spell.

"Nice shot!" James whooped as they watched Snape suddenly stagger and then fall, sprawling face-first into the muddy garden. He stood, cursing and looking to see what on earth he had tripped over. At the sound of James's shout, however, he looked up at them. Sirius and James both grinned broadly at him.

"Nice look," Sirius called down to him casually. "Of course, with your complexion you could use a good mudpack."

James laughed. "I don't think it'll help," he said, loud enough for Snape to hear him. "Not til he washes that greasy hair of his, anyway."

Snape swore rather impressively at them and fumbled in his robes, looking for his wand, shouting, "I'll get you for that, Potter!"

"Oh yeah?" James shot back in the voice of one only mildly interested. "Well good luck with that. And it's by your feet, by the way."

Snape looked down and snatched up his fallen wand. He stood back up to curse or hex Sirius and James, but they were already leaving the window.

"Catch you later, Snivellus!" James called, then, laughing, he and Sirius hurried off down the corridor.

"Damn!" said Sirius, checking his watch as they went. "We're going to be late."

"Oh well, it was worth it," said James.

"Yeah, but did it have to be McGonagall?" Sirius retorted. "She hates it when people arrive late."

James groaned and broke into a run.

They arrived only a minute late, but the rest of the class was already there and in their seats. Professor McGonagall turned as they walked in and gave them one of her sterner looks.

"I should think," she said tartly, "that after two whole years here, you would know the way to my classroom well enough to make it on time."

"Sorry, Professor," Sirius and James mumbled together.

"Five points from Gryffindor each for your tardiness," she decided. "Now sit down and pay attention."

They looked around; the only seats left were at the back of the room just behind Kaysa and her cousin, who were sitting behind Lily and Heather. Remus and Peter were sitting two rows over. Sirius groaned inwardly, then followed James and slid into his chair. As they sat, Lily turned back to give them a contemptuous look. James grinned brazenly at her while Sirius just rolled his eyes. Then Professor McGonagall called the class to order, asking for Cameron to pass out hedgehogs from a wooden box while she explained to the class how they were to turn them into pincushions.

They were about halfway through the class period when something different happened. Sirius was concentrating; he didn't have the spell quite right yet. Beside him, James was a bit further along; Sirius was pretty good, but James had always excelled at Transfiguration. Frowning, Sirius raised his wand, about to try again, when a voice nearby broke his concentration.

"This… does not — should not — work!" The voice was unfamiliar and strangely accented, as if the speaker was trying to roll syllables that weren't meant to be rolled or weren't even there. Sirius looked up. So did everyone else. Even Professor McGonagall was staring.

"And why not, Miss Kaysa?" asked Professor McGonagall, still looking startled but managing to keep it mostly out of her voice.

In front of Sirius, Kaysa stood and faced McGonagall. Beside her, her cousin Chitral stared up at her with an expression equal parts shock and worry. Kaysa took a breath.

"To go from one to the other — hedgehog to pincushion," she said, motioning vaguely with her hands, "the difference is too much! Where does the extra hedgehog go?"

"'Extra hedgehog?'" repeated James quietly to Sirius. "What on earth is she on about?"

Professor McGonagall seemed to want to know the same thing. "What do you mean?" she asked the girl, looking bewildered. Sirius could just make out Kaysa's reflection in one of the glass-covered sketches on the classroom wall; she looked frustrated, her mouth pursed and her eyes narrowed. Sirius couldn't help wondering if it hurt to make a face like that for long.

"They are not the same," Kaysa said slowly, as though having trouble explaining. "The hedgehog is more — is bigger." She waved her hands as though this was not quite the word she was looking for but was willing to settle for it. "The pincushion is smaller — lighter. Where does the extra from the hedgehog go?"

Sirius frowned, trying to work his way through this; he had a feeling it would make sense if he could just get around her odd way of saying it. Then, to his surprise, Lily, seemed to understand.

"Oh," she said, looking back at the other girl. "You mean it has more matter?"

"The stuff it is made up of?" said Kaysa, evidently looking for clarification. "You call this matter?"

"Yes," said Lily. "Or the Muggles do, anyway. I've heard my sister talk about it some." She turned to Professor McGonagall. "I think I know what she means, Professor. The Muggles call it matter, but I don't know if wizards ever call it anything, but it means, sort of, the stuff that things are made up of, I think. Not in particular, just in general."

"Yes," said Kaysa looking pleased that someone understood at least a little. "It is a law of the world that matter cannot be made or unmade, only changed." Sirius noticed that while her accent was still thick, her English seemed to be better now that she had the words she needed. "If this is true then how can we make the more-matter hedgehog into the less-matter pincushion?"

Lily frowned. "I hadn't thought of that," she said pensively. "It's a good question. Professor?"

Professor McGonagall looked as though she still wasn't quite sure what they were talking about, but Sirius thought he had understood enough to ask a valid question.

"But what about vanishing spells?" he pointed out. "You don't seem to have any trouble with them."

Kaysa turned to look directly at him. Her expression was odd, as though she were reassessing him.

"When you vanish something," she said finally, "it does not become unmade. It is simply sent somewhere else — not a place such as you would think of, but a place still. This is different."

"Why?" Sirius wanted to know. "Why can't you just be sending the extra to this, this not-quite-a-place?"

"It is different," the girl insisted. "This is transfiguring — changing. Not vanishing. This is so, yes, Professor?" she added, suddenly looking less sure.

McGonagall put a hand to her temples and sighed heavily. "This is very advanced theory you're asking to have explained, Miss Kaysa," she said. "And I say 'theory' because it is only that. We do not, in fact, know for sure."

"But there is a theory?" the girl pressed.

"Yes —" McGonagall began, but one of the other students cut her off.

"I still don't get it." The speaker was a girl, but not one Sirius recognized as being part of Lily's circle. "Why can't you just reshape the hedgehog? I mean, can't you just smash up this matter stuff til it fits?"

"No," said Remus. Sirius glanced over at his friend; he looked thoughtful, his blue eyes alive with trying to understand this new concept. "Because if you did, it would have to weigh the same, wouldn't it?"

"Yes," said Kaysa, looking impressed. "If you just made it all fit tightly, you would make the pincushion dense. Pincushions are not denser than hedgehogs. In fact, they are much less dense."

"What's 'dense'?" asked Liam, looking thrown.

"How do you not know what density is?" Kaysa wanted to know.

"Kaysa, I'm sure they do know. They just don't realize it is the same thing." Chitral's voice was lower than Kaysa's, and softer, and she seemed to get things like contractions better, but she spoke with the same strange accent. She turned to the rest of the class. "Density is how tightly packed things are. If I said that a crowd was dense, you would know what I meant, yes? A lot of people packed into one area. This is the same idea."

Remus was nodding. Sirius frowned, working the idea around until he thought he understood. Next to him, James was rolling his eyes.

"I don't see why it matters," he said looking up at Kaysa. "It's magic. It just works."

"Even magic has rules, Mr. Potter," said Professor McGonagall sternly. Kaysa smiled and nodded. "However," the teacher continued, "while Miss Kaysa has a valid point and a good question, this is not the time for a discussion on advanced theories of Transfuguration. So, if we could please get back the task at hand…"

"But I need to know," Kaysa said. Sirius was surprised; she almost sounded as though she were whining. Professor McGonagall turned to her, her expression austere; she did not like interruptions and had little patience for whining.

"Actually," Lily jumped in, rescuing her new friend, "I would like to know too. Professor, we have a free period after this class, perhaps, if you wouldn't mine, those of us who are curious could stay afterwards to discuss it?"

Professor McGonagall considered this and nodded. "Very well, Miss Evans, Miss Kaysa. As I do not have a class next period either, you are free to stay late and I shall try to answer your questions then. Until then, however, I expect you to apply yourselves to the lesson I have given you, and I should prefer if there were no more distractions."

"Yes, Professor," said Lily obediently. Chitral tugged at Kaysa's sleeve. Kaysa sat down without a word and picked up her wand again. Professor McGonagall eyed her for a moment, then shook herself and turned to correct Peter's wand movement.

"You should have thanked her," Sirius heard Chitral murmur to her cousin. "Or at least acknowledged her terms."

"Why?" Kaysa wanted to know. "I am doing as she said."

"Yes, but it was rude to simply sit down," Chitral hissed back. "We're not at home anymore. You can't just get what you want because you snarl at someone."

Kaysa snorted softly. "I did not even need to do that," she muttered. "She gave in pretty easy."

Chitral kicked her under the desk. "Don't you pay _any _attention? Their ways are different from ours!"

Kaysa huffed slightly and turned back to her work. Sirius frowned, wondering where they were from and what these different ways were. Wherever it was, Chitral seemed to have a much better understanding of how things worked around here than did her cousin. He laughed suddenly to himself, thinking how ironic it was that Kaysa should think him and James arrogant while she herself seemed to feel she needn't be bothered with learning the normal social graced of her school.

When the class was over, most of the Gryffindors picked up their bags and left, but Kaysa, Chitral, and Lily stayed behind. Sirius hesitated for a moment, then decided to stay. He thought James was probably right; as long as the spells worked, it wasn't really too important just how they worked, but he also knew that now Kaysa had asked the question, he wouldn't be satisfied until he knew the answer. Next to him, James began to gather up his things then stopped when he realized Sirius wasn't following suite.

"You want to stay?" he asked, startled. Sirius nodded.

"Actually, I do too," said Remus, coming up to them with Peter in tow. "I've never thought about this kind of thing before. It's interesting."

"Oh? And what about you, Peter? Do you want to stay, too?" James demanded.

Peter hesitated, looking from James to Professor McGonagall.

"I don't know," he said nervously. "I mean, I'm not very good at Transfiguration. Maybe, maybe it would help…"

"Well, it certainly couldn't hurt," said Cameron, who was apparently staying too. "I think it sounds fascinating!"

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Everything fascinates you, Cam," he said.

"Not that the fascination usually lasts for more than about five minutes," grumbled James. He sighed theatrically. "Very well," he said, "I can see I've been overruled. And I suppose it's not like I really have anything better to do."

Sirius turned to inspect the final count for this odd little discussion group. Besides him and his friends, there was also Kaysa, Chitral, Lily, though not her friend Heather, Cam, and a short, brown-haired girl called Anna Farley. He raised his eyebrows, impressed. Nearly half the class had stayed.

Professor McGonagall waved her wand at the desks and they moved to form a semicircle around her own desk.

"Sit," she told them, lowering herself into her own high-backed wooden chair. Chitral moved to sit at a desk in the middle of the semicircle. Kaysa followed her, though she sat on the desk, rather than at it. Lily shook her head slightly then moved to sit next to them and Anna to a seat next to her. Cam, who had been wandering about the classroom looking at the things on the wall, sat down right next to Anna, completely unaware of the glance she shot him. Sirius rolled his eyes, shrugged, then plunked down next to Chitral. She, too, shot him a look. Sirius raised his brows at her, daring her to comment. She looked away. James fell in next to Sirius, then Peter, then Remus.

"Right," said Professor McGonagall when they were all seated. "Now, I know Miss Kaysa and Miss Evans gave some explanation on the subject of matter, but I would like to go over it again to make sure we all understand.

"Matter is, as I understand it, the Muggle term for that which all things are made up of, which gives them substance. What Miss Kaysa was asking about earlier in class is how we can perform Transfigurations turning things with more substance into things with less substance."

She glanced at Kaysa for confirmation of this. Kaysa nodded, and she continued.

"Now, what Miss Kaysa said is true, at least in part; this substance, this matter, cannot be created, or destroyed. It can, however, be converted. Consider when you eat food. One certainly does not excrete all that one consumes. This is because much of what we eat is transformed by our bodies into the energy we need to get through the day, or to build muscle. Therefore, matter can be turned into energy.

"Now, this is a area of research and theorizing that is relatively new. As I said earlier, we do not actually know for certain what happens to the extra in a Transfiguration where the initial and ending amounts of matter or substance differ. It is theorized, however that the extra becomes energy. This is supported by the fact that it is generally easier to go from a larger object to a smaller one than vice versa."

"Oh," said Kaysa. "I see… that could make sense, I think."

"How?" countered Lily. "I've certainly never seen a Transfiguration that gave off energy. My sister says that when things give off energy like that they give off heat."

Kaysa was shaking her head.

"That's chemistry," she said. "And besides, there are many kinds of energy."

"Ah! _Mit'sai, mit'sii,_" said Chital. Everyone stared. It sounded like an epiphany.

"Beg pardon?" said Remus after a moment.

"What? Oh, sorry, um…" she frowned for a moment then said, "literally: 'Through one, through all.'"

More silence.

"We'd like an answer that makes sense, please," said James testily.

"I am not sure there is one," said Kaysa apologetically. "I am afraid it loses something in translation… Actually, it loses quite a bit. Er, in this instance, suffice to say that there is energy in everything, and magic is simply a word used to describe one's ability to manipulate energy, therefore, this theory could be true."

"You mean, magic _is_ energy?" asked Remus.

"In a way, I suppose," the girl allowed. "Or, at least it requires energy."

Remus nodded, his brow furrowed in concentration. Sirius rubbed his temples; this was starting to make his head hurt.

"How do you know all this?" the girl, Anna, wanted to know. It was a good question, too, Sirius realized; Kaysa and Chitral were only third years, like him and the others. Where had they learned about stuff like this?

Kaysa and Chitral exchanged quick, furtive glances.

"Our parents taught us much back home," said Kaysa, her voice almost too composed. "They were not sure if we would be witches or not and wished for us to have a broad early education just in case."

"And one of our baby-sitters was something of an academic," added Chitral. "He used to tell us about his research into whatever had caught his interest at the time. You can't help but pick up a lot of odd knowledge that way."

Sirius nodded. That at least made sense; certainly he could probably tell you more about dark magic than could the majority of his fellow year-mates thanks to _his_ family.

"Yes, well, putting that aside," said Professor McGonagall, "does than answer your questions, or do you have more? I may not have a class this period, but I would like to have time before next period to prepare for my sixth years."

"I think that's all my questions answered," said Lily after a moment's thought. Anna nodded. So did Cam, James, and Peter. Sirius frowned, an idea tugging at the edges of his mind.

"Wait a minute," he said quickly, still trying to pin down the thought well enough to vocalize it.

The group waited. After a moment someone said, "Yes?"

"If…" he began uncertainly, still not quite sure how to say this. "If it turns into energy — turning something bigger into something smaller — if that sort of gives off energy or whatever, then what about when you want to go from something small to something big? Wouldn't it have to go backwards? I mean, wouldn't you need to somehow add energy to make up for the missing bits?"

Professor McGonagall looked impressed. So did Kaysa and Chitral. The girls also looked surprised. Sirius found this mildly insulting; whatever else they might think of him, he wasn't stupid or anything. Sure he and James might goof off a lot of the time, but they always did well in all of their classes.

"Very good, Mr. Black," said Professor McGonagall approvingly. "You are quite right. If, indeed, we are correct in thinking that some transfigurations put off energy, then certainly others would require the input of energy."

"But how?" Sirius wanted to know. "Where would it come from? I mean, I guess I don't really know much about it, but I doubt it just lies around waiting for us to use it. If it did, Muggles wouldn't have spent so much time trying to invent it."

"You're talking about electricity," said Lily. "But it's the same stuff as lightning. I don't thing you can say we invented it, not if it already existed."

"Perhaps not," said McGonagall, a tad impatiently. "But Muggles have spent years looking for ways to control energy — to harness it. Sirius is correct to think that energy dies not simply lie around waiting for us."

Kaysa and Chitral exchanged glances, as though they were not so sure of this, but kept silent. Perhaps they, like Sirius, had noted that the professor seeming dislike for distractions.

"We do not, in fact, know where the energy that must be put in to such a transfiguration comes from," Professor McGonagall continued. "Some think that it comes from the energy put out by other transfigurations. Others theorize that, since magic essentially is energy, perhaps the energy required is provided by magic itself. Some think that we, ourselves, provide the energy." She actually smiled a bit. "It would certainly explain why our students all seem to eat so much."

The students before her all grinned sheepishly and giggled.

"And now, if that is all, you are dismissed."

They all stood to leave. Professor McGonagall gave another sweep of her wand and the desks scurried back to their original neat rows. Sirius followed his friends out the door thinking; parts of the discussion had made his head hurt, but mostly it had been really interesting. He'd never really thought about how magic might work before, he supposed he'd always just assumed that it was Magic and that _was _how it worked. It had never really occurred to him that there might be rules.

Ahead of him and the others, Kaysa and Chitral were talking. As they drew closer, Sirius heard, "—like exo- and endothermic."

"Endo-what?" he asked before he could stop himself. The girls stopped walking and turned to stare at him. Sirius stopped too, James and the others behind him.

"Don't you know it is rude to eavesdrop," Kaysa snapped, using a contraction for the first time.

"It's not eavesdropping if you don't have to sneak around to do it," Sirius retorted.

Kaysa rolled her eyes.

"Listen in, then," she said. "And 'endothermic' means a chemical reaction that gives off energy in the form of heat. It's chemistry stuff."

She turned and started walking again. Sirius followed.

"What's chemistry?" he pressed.

"It's a Muggle thing," said Kaysa. "It's like… like—"

"Sort of like if you crossed Transfiguration with Potions," Chitral broke in.

"Mnh," said Kaysa. "I was going to say it's a bit like cooking, actually, but that's probably better. Either way, the idea is that you mix different elements — different components — together to make new things. Sometimes heat, sometimes gas or different components, sometimes even things that explode. That's how people make fireworks, you know. And not just the exploding part; the colors, too. There's chemicals that burn certain colors. Copper for blue, sodium for gold or yellow, barium for green… metals, mostly." She stopped, realizing that everyone was staring. To Sirius's surprise, the girl actually blushed.

"That sitter of ours had a bit of a passion for chemistry," said Chitral, coming to her cousin's rescue. "And Kaysa likes things that go boom," she added wryly. Sirius looked at Kaysa with new interest. Her cheeks were still pink with embarrassment, but she met his gaze steadily, her emerald green eyes challenging him to say anything. He grinned at her and shrugged.

"Explosives can be fun," he said. Kaysa's eyes flicked to James.

"Ye-es," she said slowly, her expression rather smug all of a sudden. "Detention-worthy fun, even."

"What? You mean that time in History of Magic class?" said James. "Oh, come on, that class is so dull. Definitely a price I was willing to pay."

"Perhaps," said the girl, her lips twitching a tiny bit. "But if you'd planned it better you wouldn't have had to."

They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. Giving the password, Kaysa ducked though the hole. Chitral followed, then Sirius, James, and the others.

"Kaysa! Chitral!" called Lily from her seat at a table with Heather. "Come sit with us. Kaysa, do you want me to proofread that essay for Charms for you?"

"Yes, please," said Kaysa. "If you're sure you don't mind."

"Proofread?" echoed Sirius, raising an eyebrow at her. He expected her to snap at him, but instead she simply shrugged at him.

"Your language and my brain do not always see eye to eye." She almost sounded amused. Sirius stared at her. Her lips twitched ever so slightly then she turned and walked over to join Chitral with Lily and Heather.

"Did she just make a joke?" asked Remus, dumbfounded.

"I think she might have," said James.

"Okay, so maybe you were right," said Peter. "Maybe they _do_ make less sense than most girls."

"Yeah…" said Sirius watching as Kaysa and Lily bent over Kaysa's essay. Then he shook himself and checked his watch. "Right, we've got half an hour left before class. Who's up for a game of Exploding Snap?"

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**_(Kaysa)_**

"You just had to start it like that, didn't you?"

Kaysa looked up at her cousin. It was afternoon and they were holed up in the library in the hopes of getting some work done before dinner.

"Start what like what?" Kaysa asked blankly. Chitral glared at her accusatorially.

"Us talking," she said. "Why couldn't you have pretended to be normal? Just once? Everyone's going to think we're totally weird now."

"Chi," said Kaysa incredulously, "everyone already thinks that. I mean, we've been here for two years and haven't said a word! It's not like I could have made it any better by asking something less complicated."

"Maybe, but it wouldn't have made things any worse, either!" Chitral snapped.

"Yeah, well, it's done," said Kaysa flatly. "And I got an answer that might help so I don't much care what anyone thinks."

"Mnh!" Chitral grunted her lack of surprise, then said, "I was surprised at how quick Lily seemed to catch on."

"I'm surprised any of them understood," said Kaysa laughing. "I mean, why would wizards ever worry about stuff like that? You heard what Potter said. 'It's Magic!' Like that explained everything."

"Yes, well, a lot of them do seem to take that view," Chitral admitted. "I can't say I was surprised he was one of them."

"No," Kaysa agreed. "On the bright side, not all his friends seem to be as mentally lazy. Lupin seemed to understand fast enough."

"Yes," said Chitral slyly. "So did the Black boy. You two certainly seemed to have a lot to say to each other."

Kaysa frowned at her cousin.

"Well, he kept asking questions, didn't he?" she pointed out.

Chitral snorted loudly.

"Oh, come on, Kays, admit it! You were impressed by the things he asked!"

"And you weren't?" Kaysa countered rather hotly.

"Of course I was," said Chitral. "I always thought he never used his brain for anything but getting into trouble."

Kaysa laughed at that. She had figured about the same.

"Me too," she told Chitral. "Isn't it refreshing to be wrong now and again?"

"Oh, right," said her cousin sarcastically. "Because you are only ever wrong every now and again."

"Oh, shut up," said Kaysa good-humoredly. "I meant about people. It's encouraging."

"Whatever," said Chitral, shaking her head. "They're still arrogant little jerks."

"Of course they are," said Kaysa. "But no one ever said jerks couldn't be intelligent." But she was thinking of Black and Potter noticing that something was wrong with their friend and taking him to the Hospital Wing. Of Lupin helping out Pettigrew with his homework and of Black and Potter still being best friends with Lupin even though she was pretty sure they knew he was a werewolf. Oh, certainly they were arrogant — Black and Potter especially, but maybe there was more to it than that.

"Kays? Kaysa!"

"Huh? What?"

"You're spacing out," her cousin told her.

"Was I? Sorry."

"What were you thinking about?" Chitral asked curiously.

"Hm? Oh, nothing really, just more theory stuff," Kaysa lied quickly. After all, if Chitral knew that she'd been thinking maybe Black and Potter weren't so bad she'd never hear the end of it. "Come on, let's get this done. It's due tomorrow and I want to have some fun tonight."

* * *

A/N: um, i suppose i should mention that the issues of souls is another thing about Transfiguration that has always bugged me... i don't know how i'm going to deal with that one yet, though i have a few ideas. if anyone has any ideas of their own i'm open to suggestions!

hope you're all enjoying this as much as i am!

~SilverKit'sFire


	5. Books and Belles

disclaimer: HP and it's characters are not mine, just Kaysa, Chitral, Chasta, and Shasta

A/N: hello. welcome to chapter ... five. i think. or four. depending on whether you count the prologue as a chapter. i feel that this one is a bit short... sorry. anyway, i don't think there's anything big you need to know here, so: onwards! (and downward ^_^)

happy reading!

* * *

**_Books and Belles_**

In the weeks that followed Kaysa and Chitral continued to speak, their English rapidly improving; the first Hogsmeade weekend was announced, causing much excitement for all the third years; and Sirius, James, and Snape all got put in detention for dueling. Kaysa smirked and shook her head at them when she heard, making James bristle and Sirius frown. He knew that James still thought that Kaysa and her cousin were just weird girls, but Sirius wasn't so sure. The more the girls talked, the more he found himself watching them. Well, Kaysa, really. She was funny, and smart, too, he'd realized. It wasn't just that she knew a lot of things, but she had a sharp and ready mind, grasping at concepts and looking for flaws, seeking understanding where many would just want to be able to do the magic and parrot the answers.

She was pretty, too, he'd noticed — not like Chitral was pretty; that was different. With her petite build and gently rounded face, even at thirteen Chitral was lovely. There was a sort of softness about her. Kaysa was different. Tall and slender, already a hand taller than her cousin and with far more angles than curves, she should have been the less noticed of the two — or at least the less admired. But Kaysa had a presence that Chitral's shyness would never allow her to reach. You couldn't help noticing her; the confidence that seemed to show in her every step made that impossible.

Of course, so did her quick temper. Sometimes Sirius was convinced that she must actually like annoying people. Kaysa would argue with anyone, anywhere, and did so so frequently that Sirius came to suspect that it was this, rather than speaking up in class, that was helping her English so much. The girl seemed to be inordinately fond of showing people up and hated not getting to have the last word. By the time the next Saturday rolled around, while her syntax was still a little hazy at times and she still didn't always use contractions, she was capable of talking just about anyone in so many circles that they were left dizzy, and did so almost regularly.

"Oi!" said James at breakfast as Sirius played absently with his food. "Sirius!"

"What?"

"You've been staring at the same spot for about five minutes," James informed him. "What are you spacing out about?"

"Nothing," said Sirius quickly. "I was just thinking about Hogsmeade. I wonder what it'll be like."

"Yeah," said Peter eagerly, sitting across from him. "I can't wait to see Honeyduke's!"

James snorted slightly, probably at Peter's one-track mind, but all he said was, "And Zonko's. It's supposed to be full of things for practical jokes."

Sirius grinned.

"Good," he said. "We could do with some new ones."

Remus sighed and shook his head.

"Is that really all you two ever think about? The next cool thing you can do to get into trouble?" he asked.

Sirius and James exchanged glances then turned back to Remus with enormous grins.

"Of course!" they chorused. Remus groaned. Sirius and James roared with laughter. Peter chuckled but kept eating.

"Alright, alright," said Remus, holding up a hand in surrender. "I guess we'd better do Zonko's and Honeyduke's. But can we also look for a bookstore? I could do with some new reading material."

"Yeah, alright," said James, shrugging and tucking in to his eggs and bacon once more.

"What do you want _more _books for?" Peter wanted to know. "Don't we have enough to do already?"

"Well, yes, I suppose," said Remus. "But after that discussion on theory last week I'm curious. We never really get into how things work in classes much."

"So you're looking for stuff on advanced theory?" said Sirius raising an eyebrow. Remus had always been the most studious of their little band, but he couldn't help feeling that this was taking things to a whole new level. Remus flushed slightly, but only shrugged.

"It's interesting," he said.

"If you say so," said James. He sounded unconvinced but had clearly decided not to bother arguing the point. Sirius kept quiet. He had found it interesting, too, actually, but he wasn't sure he wanted to read entire books about theories. He would much rather just talk about them. Maybe he could get Remus to tell him about it later.

He told himself his interest had nothing to do with Kaysa — it was simply that he'd discovered that theory could be interesting, fun to think about, that was all. Of course, he felt sure that if he had questions he could put them to her and get if not answers than at least some good food for thought.

If he could get her to look at him without sneering first, anyway. He didn't think that she and Chitral actually hated him and his friends, but Kaysa still seemed to get a kick out of showing them up.

Of course, that only made her more interesting.

After breakfast Sirius and his friends followed the throng of third year and above students into the entrance hall. Mr. Filch, the caretaker, was there with a list of who was allowed to visit Hogsmeade to make sure no one who didn't have permission snuck out anyway, a task Sirius was sure he would take great pleasure in, especially if he happened to find someone trying it.

Sirius wondered vaguely if any of the students didn't have permission. He found it a bit hard to believe that any of the parents would actually say no. Even his parents, who were becoming increasingly despairing about his chances of ever being a son they could take pride in, had said yes. No Black would ever be seen as being underprivileged. His parents were convinced that, because their family was one of the oldest wizarding families anyone knew of, they were somehow of a higher class than everyone else. It was one of the many things on which Sirius and his family disagreed, though he supposed it might have helped him out in this case. If his parent's hadn't been so preoccupied with things like appearances they might not have let him go to Hogsmeade out of sheer annoyance with him and his strange ideas.

Someone stepped on his foot by mistake in the crowd, pulling him from his thoughts.

"Ouch," he muttered, looking around to try to see who it had been. Then he saw the village and all thoughts of his feet vanished.

He supposed he shouldn't have been as astonished as he was, coming from an all wizarding family. His mother certainly would have scolding him for seeming impressed by it. But he couldn't help it; aside from Diagon Alley and Hogwarts, he'd never been anywhere that was so completely magical. Everywhere else in the world, witches and wizards were forced to take care to hide from the Muggles. Even Diagon Alley was hidden away. Hogsmeade, however, was an entire village without Muggles; no one was hiding here. There were witches and wizards out in proper robes, some with their wands in plain view in their hands. Shop signs and advertisements moved and changed, telling shoppers different things, or lighting up to get more attention, some even spelling out things in different languages. And the magical community here wasn't limited to humans either; Sirius could see a group of goblins making their way up one street and a man slipping quickly through the crowd wearing a thick black cloak who looked like a vampire.

Beside Sirius, James let out a low whistle.

"No kidding," said Sirius. "This place is so different." He felt better now that he knew James had been every bit as stunned as he had.

"Yeah," said James nodding. "I mean, I knew it was an all-magic village, but, I don't know, somehow it didn't really register til now." He shook his head, then looked back at Remus and Peter, who were also staring around in awe. "Come on, let's go, you guys," he said and started off up the main street. Sirius, Remus, and Peter followed.

They found Honeyduke's and Zonko's pretty fast but Remus argued that if they went in to either shop now they wouldn't leave til it was time to go and he still wanted to see the rest of the village and look for a bookshop. Peter looked crestfallen to leave Honeyduke's without having gone in yet, but even he had conceded that Remus was probably right. They kept walking, taking in the sights and keeping an eye out for anything that looked like it might sell anything useful — or any books to satisfy Remus with. The post office fascinated Sirius, who would never have thought that wizards would have one, though when he stopped to think about it, it made perfect sense. Not everyone was all that fond of owls, or lived in a home where keeping one about was really all that practical. They got sidetracked for a while in Dervish and Banges, a wizarding equipment shop. James almost bought a bottle of 3D-ink, but Sirius reminded him that he would probably want to save his money for Zonko's later. With a sigh, James put the ink back on the shelf.

Around a corner from Dervish and Banges, they found a small hole-in-the-wall bookshop called Alexander's Used Books that delighted Remus, and which even Peter had to admit was pretty cool place. The whole shop smelled musty and old, but it worked. The books here were mostly used, with thick vellum pages and leather-bound covers. They gave off a sense of dignity, somehow, of wisdom, as if they had seen so many years that they knew more than their pages could contain.

While Remus pulled out various books on magical theory, Sirius perused the shelves, trailing his fingers over the many bindings. He pulled a book off a shelf towards the back at random and opened it. It was handwritten, the writer's letters spidery, yet ornate. Sirius thumbed curiously through the rest of the pages and saw that the handwriting changed a couple of times. He put the book back on the shelf and took another; this one was very old, the pages yellowed and the words carefully inscribed there faded and blotched in a few places. On some of the pages, where it seemed that chapters or sections began, the first letter would be large and worked into an ornate picture. Unfortunately, these pictures seemed to be related to what was being discussed in the chapters and the book seemed to be largely focused on some rather disfiguring diseases. Half grimacing, half laughing, Sirius put it back on the shelf.

He turned to see if Remus had made his choice yet or if James had found anything interesting when something caught his eye. At the very back of the shop, tucked away into a corner was another shelf. This wouldn't have been so intriguing in a bookshop, except that _this _shelf was filled with scrolls.

Oddly, though Sirius lived in a world where everyone seemed to write on rollable parchment, he'd never actually seen a real scroll before. Checking to make sure that the shopkeeper wasn't watching him, he wove his way between shelves to the back corner. His hand reached out and touched one of the old scrolls. It felt strange, not like normal parchment. He hesitated a moment then, gingerly, he picked it up and unrolled it very carefully. The yellow-brown parchment — or whatever it was — crackled slightly and released a scent unlike any other parchment Sirius had ever come across. Faded black ink formed characters he couldn't read. A few pictures suggested that a story was being told, possibly a violent one since it seemed to involve a gryphon. Squinting at the material beneath the ink, he saw that the parchment had a sort of striped pattern to it; thin dark brown lines running up and down, and across, within the musty yellow of the paper.

Sirius frowned. What on earth was this stuff made of? And how old was it, exactly? He wasn't sure when paper had been invented, but it must have been a really long time ago because he had the feeling that this scroll was ancient. Resigned to the fact that, since he couldn't read the strange markings on it he was unlikely to glean anything more from it, Sirius very carefully rerolled the scroll and placed it back on the shelf. Then he selected another one. This, too, proved to be illegible, at least to him, but now he knew where the scroll was from. The markings were different on this one and while he couldn't read them, he did recognize them. They were Egyptian hieroglyphs. The parchment of this scroll was the same as the other one, so presumably they were both from Egypt.

Now Sirius was really confused; what were Egyptian scrolls doing in this shop? He knew there had been wizards in ancient Egypt, but he felt as though the pictures on the other scroll seemed to belong more to some kind of mythology or legend. If someone had been writing a paper on gryphons then surely the pictures would have had more to do with the gryphon itself rather than depicting someone trying to fight it.

He was just reaching for a third scroll when James called his name. Sighing — he'd wanted more time to examine the old scrolls — he turned away from the shelf in the corner and went to see what was up. He met James, on his way back to see where Sirius had got to, in the middle of the shop.

"There you are," said his friend. "I was beginning to think you must have gotten lost back there or something. Ready to go, then? Remus is just paying for his book."

"Okay," said Sirius. "And I wasn't lost, just looking around. This place is cool."

James shot him an odd look. Sirius sighed inwardly; James was his best friend in the whole world, but there were some things he felt James just didn't get. This was one of them. Though Sirius wasn't on Remus's level — Remus was an actual bookworm — he did like books, especially old ones, though he wasn't quite sure why. James, on the other hand, was more of the opinion that books were useful for learning how to do things from, but he much preferred the part where you were actually doing the things, rather than reading about them.

"Yeah, I guess," said James, shrugging. "But remember we still haven't been into Zonko's."

Sirius blinked; he _had_ forgotten.

"Oh, yeah," he said, feeling a grin stretch across his face. "Let's go!"

Hurrying to the front of the shop, they collected Peter and Remus, then headed for the joke shop. Zonko's, Sirius decided, was probably on par with the bookshop in terms of great places to be in this village. It didn't have the same ambience as the bookshop had had, or the sense of suspended time and dignity. However, the things sold in Zonko's were enough to make him and James almost manic with glee. A lot of it was the classic stuff; trick card decks, fake wands, dung bombs and such, but then there were other things; things that, for anyone with a good imagination, would be great for causing all sorts of mischief and mayhem. Sadly, as Remus reminded them when he caught sight of their already plotting faces, many of these things would never be allowed in Hogwarts; Filch would confiscate them, and then probably write up James and Sirius for having them. So they settled for an assortment of Stink Pellets, Dung Bombs, and a few fake wands, though they planned to come back later when they had a better idea of how thoroughly Filch searched the returning students. If they could find a way to sneak in some of the more exciting items, they would.

Honeyduke's was next. The place was full to bursting with the most delicious looking sweets Sirius had ever seen. Peter was in heaven and seemed determined to try a bit of everything, even the weirder candies, like the blood flavored lollipops, though even he would not touch the cockroach clusters.

"I draw the line at insects," he declared when James tried to hand him some.

After Zonko's, Sirius didn't have much money left so he just got a box of assorted chocolates, a small bag of mints, and some sherbet balls that supposedly made you levitate while you ate them. As he turned to leave the counter, he spotted Lily, Kaysa, and Chitral examining a barrel of candy swords.

"What are you supposed to do with them?" Chitral was asking. "I mean, it's not really a practical shape for a lollipop, is it?"

"They're probably for Samhain," said Kaysa, picking one up and swinging it lightly in her hand.

"Samhain?" Lily echoed.

"Yes, I — Oh, that's right, you call it something else, don't you?" said Kaysa frowning. "Er, it's, you know, that holiday coming up… the one on the thirty-first?"

"Halloween," said Lily. "And I've heard of Samhain," she added. "I just didn't think you guys were Irish."

"We're not," said Kaysa. "It's just this book I've been reading. It's good, but sometimes I get the different cultures mixed up."

She grinned suddenly and brought the candy sword up, taking a guard stance.

"En garde!" she challenged, jabbing playfully at her cousin. Chitral rolled her eyes and stepped away. Lily, however, grinned and picked another of the candy swords. She brandished it at Kaysa and the two began a mock sword fight.

Around them, students stopped shopping to look. Busy watching them himself, Sirius didn't even realize that James had come to stand by him until, after a moment, James started to laugh.

"Not bad, Evans," he said, as the girls stopped to stare at their audience. "Not bad for a girl, anyway."

Lily glared, her face going slightly pink. Kaysa's green eyes flashed.

"Oh yes?" she said. "Think you could do better, Potter?"

"Kaysa, don't," Chitral hissed. Kaysa paid her cousin no attention. She tossed James a candy sword. James's Quidditch reflexes kicked in and he caught it before it could hit the floor.

"Go on then," said Kaysa, her voice cool. "Show us how it's done."

James looked flustered; he clearly hadn't expected this to happen. But he wasn't one of the few people who could stand up to Lucius Malfoy for nothing.

"Can't," he said, his face giving away none of the quick thinking he had to be doing. "Not here. There's not enough room. Anyway, the swords would break and then we'd have to buy them."

"Oh, that would be a tragedy," said the girl, making her eyes go big and round in mock seriousness. "To have to buy candy in a candy shop! Heaven forbid!"

The people clustered around to watch laughed. James smiled disarmingly.

"Actually," he said, "it's just that I'm out of money."

He handed her back the candy sword.

"Hmph," she snorted. "I bet you don't know anything about sword fighting, do you?"

James shrugged.

"Why would I? Wizards don't duel with swords, we use magic, don't we?"

Kaysa shook her head and inspected the candy sword she held. The crowd around them began to break up again as it sensed that nothing interesting was going to happen. Lily went to stand with Heather, who was looking at chocolate. Chitral hesitated for a moment, then went to join them, clearly hoping that her cousin would follow. Kaysa bit the sword off at the tip, then turned to James.

"Don't you think it's a bit stupid to be so reliant on magic?" she asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well," she said, "I mean, doesn't it put you at a disadvantage? If magic's all you can fight with, that is. I mean, I don't know much about wizard dueling, but Lily's been teaching us about some of the basics and she said the disarming charm is one of the first things a wizard learns about dueling. Wouldn't it be nice if, instead of being helpless without a wand, you could still pull a few surprises on your opponent?"

"Like what?" asked James flatly. "It's kind of hard to fight magic without magic. I mean, once someone hits you with a spell, if you don't have a wand, then that's pretty much the end of it, isn't if?"

"Not if you're fast enough," said Kaysa. "Most spells have to hit you directly to have an effect. If you can dodge and get to your opponent quick, then all you have to do is land one good blow."

She was right, Sirius realized. Most defensive spells didn't require good aim, but the vast majority of offensive spells did. If you could avoid getting hit by one and knew how to take a person out physically, then you stood a better chance than if all you knew were spells. Curious, he asked her, "Is this another thing your family was big on?"

"Fighting? No," she shook her head laughing. "My mother hates fighting. But Chi and I wanted to dance. Our dance master was also an expert martial artist. He taught us some of the basics."

"What if there's more than one?"

"What?" asked Kaysa, looking at James.

"In this hypothetical fight," said James. "What if there's more than one opponent?"

Kaysa shrugged.

"Run faster."

Startled, James and Sirius laughed. Kaysa actually ginned at them.

"Kaysa! Come on."

They turned. Lily, Heather, and Chitral stood by the shop door; purchases made, they were ready to leave.

"Coming," Kaysa called back. "Here." She snapped the top off of the sword she bitten and handed it to James. "You know where to find me if you ever reconsider our duel. I'd be only too happy to show you what a girl can do."

There was something predatory about her grin now and Sirius was quite sure that, no matter how friendly this little chat had been, she had in no way forgotten James's slight, to both her gender and her friend. Popping the bit of candy sword she still held into her mouth and slinging her bags over her shoulder, she strode over to her friends and out the door, leaving Sirius and James staring after her.

"What was that all about?"

They turned. Remus and Peter were headed towards them, Peter cradling an enormous bag of sweets in his arms. Clearly they had seen Kaysa's rather theatrical exit.

"James insulted Evans. Kaysa didn't like it and challenged him to a sword fight. He managed to talk his way out of it and we discussed fighting tactics for a bit, then she left," Sirius explained briefly. "I think she's still mad about the insult though, since she told him to let her know if he reconsidered their duel."

He turned to James.

"Will you?" he asked. "She said she didn't know much about dueling."

"What? After she just told us she took lessons in physical combat?" James laughed. "I don't think so. I mean, maybe if it was just a wizard's duel, but I'd prefer not to get beaten too easily, especially by a girl. Besides, she seems to enjoy making fools of us. I don't see why I should give her any help."

"I don't know," said Sirius as they exited the shop out onto the street. "It could be fun."

"Ha! Alright then; you fight her, since you like her so much."

"I do _not _like her!" Sirius snapped, blushing. Too late her realized that, one, James hadn't meant it like that, and two, between his words and his blush, he had just sealed his doom.

James stared at him.

"You like her," he exclaimed, sounding both astonished and far too gleeful for Sirius's liking. "You _like _her!"

"Shut up! I do not! She's just interesting, that's all."

"Oh yeah?" said James. "Then why's your face all red?"

"Shut up," Sirius growled again. "Look, it's getting late. Let's try that pub before we have to leave, okay?"

"Alright," James agreed brightly. "We can get something to drink and you can tell us all about what it's like being in love with the one girl in this school who's completely unimpressed by you."

"The only girl?" Sirius echoed, scowling at his friend. "Seems to me she's not the only one. Lily doesn't seem to think much of _you_."

James blinked. He didn't blush — he was the sort who almost never did, even when he was embarrassed — but the suddenly wooden expression on his face told Sirius that he'd hit on something. He wasn't sure if James actually fancied Lily, but her lack of regard did seem to be a bit of a sore point with him.

"So?" James asked, recovering quickly. "What do I care what she thinks about me?"

"Well," said Remus thoughtfully, "you do like to give her a hard time."

"Evans is just fun to rile up," said James dismissively. "Come on, let's get something to drink."

His tone was casual, but he didn't bring up the subject of the girls again for the rest of the day.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

_**(Kaysa)**_

"You didn't need to do that."

Kaysa looked up. She was stretched out on her bed in the third year girls' dormitory reading a book about different cultures' mythologies. There were so many and they were all so different. It fascinated her. She'd come up to read while Chitral, Lily, and Heather worked on their homework in the common room. She liked Lily a lot, and Heather was nice too, but she still liked to have time to herself. Now, Lily stood at the foot of her bed alone, evidently having left Chi and Heather in the common room so she could talk to Kaysa alone.

"Do what?" Kaysa asked.

"Back there," said Lily. "In Hogsmeade."

"Oh, you mean with the boys."

"Yes," said Lily. "You didn't have to do that. In fact —"

"What do you mean, 'have to'?" asked Kaysa blankly. "Isn't that just what friends do? Stick up for each other?"

"Well, yes," said Lily. "But —"

"And aren't we friends?"

"Yes, of course, but —"

"Then I do not understand what the problem is," said Kaysa.

Lily sighed.

"It's not a problem, really," she said, taking a seat on the end of Chitral's bed. "And it's sweet of you to stick up for me, but I still don't think you should have done it. Potter and Black love attention — especially Potter. It's better to ignore them. It'll only encourage them if you respond."

"Oh," said Kaysa as understanding dawned at last. She had worried for a moment that she had done something wrong.

She cocked her head to one side, considering. She understood the idea, even if it was very different from what she was used to. (Her own people were very. . . . _direct_ about dealing with problems and desputes.) She agreed, too, at least to a point. Rewarding bad behavior didn't help. But somehow she wasn't sure that attention was what it was about with those two. Oh, they liked the attention, certainly, but they were arrogant. In Kaysa's world arrogance was dealt with straightforwardly: you simply took a (metaphorical) blunt object and smashed the arrogant one's ego until he or she understood that they were not, in fact, as cool as all that. James and Sirius struck her as the type who, far more than ignoring, needed routine ego-squashing. But perhaps that was not how things worked here.

"You could be right," she said diplomatically. Lily was trying to help, after all. "I'll keep it in mind."

Lily nodded, then said, "We're still working, if you want to join us."

"Oh, no," said Kaysa, shaking her head. "I mean, thank you, but after Hogsmeade I'm all peopled out. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," said Lily smiling. "I know the feeling."

She left. Kaysa tried to go back to her book, but stray thoughts kept interrupting her. At home, she would have know what to do. But here, where things were at once so different and so similar, she was beginning to question herself. So many of the rules confused her, seeming to have no logical basis whatsoever. She was still pondering her talk with Lily when, some time later, Chitral came up, dumping her books and a roll of parchment into her trunk.

"Finally," she sighed. "I was beginning to think we'd never finish that assignment."

"Mnh," said Kaysa, then abruptly, "Walk a thought trail with me?"

"Yeah, alright. What's the question?"

"If someone is doing something and you want them to stop, but they're not really doing it for attention, does it make sense to just ignore them?"

"I don't know," said Chitral. "I guess it would depend."

"Depend on what?" Kaysa asked.

"On whether or not it was worth getting involved in," Chitral replied. "If it's not, then it makes perfect sense to ignore them. You wouldn't be encouraging them, but you also wouldn't end up having to deal with them, either. On the other hand, if you really want whatever it is they are doing to stop, and it's definitely not for attention, then ignoring them won't make them stop."

"Mnh." Kaysa nodded, loving how straightforward and sensible her cousin's mind was.

"Why?" Chitral wanted to know.

"Hm? Oh. Lily reckons we aught to just ignore Potter and his lot," said Kaysa. "I don't think that will really help, but, well, like you keep reminding me, this isn't home. Maybe she knows something I don't."

Chitral shrugged.

"'Like knows like best,'" she quoted. "And anyway, even if you're right, it's not like you can go and fight him for rank. For one thing he wouldn't understand, and we'd get kicked out for another."

Kaysa nodded.

"I know that," she said. "But these people must have some other way of dealing with things like this. They can't just ignore everyone who's annoying, right?"

"Kaysa," Chitral said firmly, "it's not your job to deal with Potter."

"No," Kaysa agreed. "But no one else seems to be doing it! Besides, he insulted us. He insulted our friend, and he insulted all females everywhere, saying what he did."

Chitral hesitated.

"I think he was just trying to tease Lily…" she said slowly, but Kaysa could see the flash in her jade colored eyes and knew that James's suggestion, however round about it might have been, that girls couldn't fight as well as boys simply because they were girls, was rankling her too.

Kaysa and Chitral's society was matriarchal. Back home, no one would have ever suggested to a female that she couldn't fight as well as a male unless it were true or else intended as a great insult. And it would never, _ever _be suggested that a female couldn't fight —or do anything else for that matter — as well as a male simply because she was female. Neither of them was used to sexism, and Kaysa at least didn't think that they should let Potter get away with it. Letting people think that they were better than others for possessing purely arbitrary traits was not a good idea; it never led to anything good. Human history proved that over and over again.

"Come on, Chi," said Kaysa. "You really want him to think it's okay to disrespect girls because they're girls?"

Chitral twitched; her eyes narrowed and her jaw clenched.

"No," she said tightly. "I don't. But I don't want to get into trouble over the likes of him, either."

Kaysa shrugged.

"Then we'll just have to be careful, won't we?"

Chitral nodded, reluctant but determined, then slipped into pajamas and pulled out a book of her own to read. Kaysa sighed. She hated bigotry and stereotypes of all kinds. Back home, she'd been challenging people on such biases practically since she could talk. She'd gotten quite the reputation for it, too, enough that even adults had thought twice about the things they said in front of her. But she'd had eleven years to gain that respect in at home. Now it looked as though she'd have to start all over again.

* * *

A/N: okay everyone. don't panic. yes, Sirius has a crush on Kaysa, an OC, i know. however, you needn't worry. it is just an adolescent crush. all adolescent crushes go something like this: you meet someone. they're cool and interesting. you idealize them. you crush on them. then you get to know them, find out that they're actually real people and the crush goes away. and if you're lucky, you end up with a new friend and a genuine liking for the person. so no worries... hope i didn't scare anyone there...

anyway, other than that, i hope you all liked it. please send me your thoughts, reviews, suggestions, questions... whatever you like. i love knowing what people think!

~SilverKit'sFIre


	6. The Great Pumpkin

disclaimer: HP and it's characters are not mine, just Kaysa, Chitral, and the others (Neal, Kynthia, etc.)

2nd disclaimer: the song _All Souls Night_ is, in fact, a real song. i did not come up with it. actually, i'm not sure who did. it's sung by Loreena McKennitt. if you YouTube it, you can hear what it actually sounds like. i highly recommend this; it's a beautiful song.

A/N: welcome to chapter five (six? whatever.). i'm happy to tell you that this one is longer... i still feel that the last chapter was a bit short... but i'm making up for it here, i promise! i decided it was time for a famous Marauder's prank. i only hope i did them justice ^_^ please enjoy!

(also, in case anyone's wondering, this chapter is sort of in honor of the only part of Charlie Brown i ever really enjoyed, though it's not where i got the idea)

* * *

**_The Great Pumpkin_**

The Sunday after their Hogsmeade trip proved to be a rather lazy one. Remus read his new book on magical theory, James and Sirius worked on the homework they had neglected the night before, and Peter, who had done most of his homework with Remus on Friday so he'd have help, took a nap while he waited for the others to be free to play Exploding Snap. James still didn't say anything about Kaysa to Sirius, although that might have been because they didn't see her or her cousin all day, not even at meals.

Sirius wasn't sure he found his friend's silence on the matter reassuring though. It could mean he was done giving Sirius a hard time about it, but Sirius doubted it. He suspected, rather, that James was either avoiding the subject because it might mean talking about Lily, too, or else was just plotting something worse than just a few jokes at Sirius's expense.

But he didn't have much time to worry about this; Halloween was coming up and Neal, whose mother's family were Muggles, had arranged what he called 'a bit of fun' for his fellow Gryffindors. He'd asked the teacher for permission (and gotten it) to hold an even where the students could carve pumpkins by hand. Actually, it wasn't just for the Gryffindors, the event was to be open to the whole school, though Sirius was pretty sure that Neal was mostly intending it as a treat for his Housemates. To Sirius's surprise, a lot of the Muggle-born students were quite excited about it. They seemed to find the prospect of attacking a pumpkin with nothing more than a spoon and a sharp knife wildly attractive. Sirius himself, did not, both because he didn't like the idea of having even less time to get all his work done, and because he found it hard to imagine anyone being able to create something artistic with a steak knife and a pumpkin without seriously injuring themselves, though apparently Muggles did it all the time. Of his other friends, Remus seemed interested, James was just as skeptical as Sirius, and Peter waffled, uncertain whom to agree with.

At dinner that night, James sat down across from Neal. Sirius and Peter plopped down on either side of James and Remus slid in next to Neal.

"Hello," said Neal, cheerfully loading his plate with roast pork and gravy. Then he saw the way James was looking at him. "What's up?"

"It's about this pumpkin carving thing you've got going," said James. "Are you sure it's a good idea?"

Neal shrugged.

"I used to carve pumpkins by hand every year with my grandparents and my aunt," he said. "It sounds odd to you, but it's great fun, I promise."

"Is it still great fun when you cut your own hand off?" James wanted to know.

"Oh, we generally try to avoid that sort of thing," said Neal, a faint sparkle in his hazel green eyes. "Although, if you're going for spooky, blood does add to the effect."

"What?" squeaked Peter, his eyes round. "I'm not doing it if it involves blood!"

Neal laughed.

"I'm joking," he said. "I've never hurt myself — or seen anyone else hurt themselves — doing this."

Peter looked slightly reassured at this. Sirius traded a skeptical look with James. Remus rolled his eyes at them.

"Come on, guys," he said. "It's not like we don't use knives and sharp things all the time in our classes. Like Potions. And what about Herbology?"

"I suppose," said Sirius slowly. "But we wear dragon hide gloves for Herbology."

"That's more because the plants try to eat you than anything else," Remus pointed out.

"Look," Neal broke in, sounding irritated, "no one's making you come or anything. If handling knives makes you uncomfortable then don't do it. But I think it'll be fun. Some of the first years are really excited so don't ruin it for them, okay?"

"Has it occurred to you that it might be the first years excitement that worries me?" James retorted. "Why would you ever give them sharp blades when they're all worked up?"

"Oh, come on, you guys," said Remus again. "Neal's right; no one's making you go. Stop grousing. If you're too afraid of knife-wielding first years then stay away, but don't be such jerks about it. Neal's just trying to make something fun for us all."

They looked at Neal, who was looking hard at his plate and avoiding their eyes. Sirius flushed. James looked startled, then understanding dawned and he looked down, ashamed.

"Sorry, Neal," he said quietly to his teammate. "I didn't mean — that is, I just, I wasn't thinking."

Neal sighed and waved the words away.

"It's okay," he said. "I know how you are, James."

"Don't we all," said a new voice. They all turned as Kynthia sat down on Neal's other side. "But that doesn't mean you should just go ahead and say things without thinking first," she admonished. "We're your friends, James — at least, I think we are. You should at least try to be more considerate."

"Kynthia!" muttered Neal, embarrassed.

"No, she's right," said James, who looked thoroughly abashed now. "Of course I care about you guys. Look, I'm no good at thinking before I open my mouth, but really, I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry."

Sirius stared at his friend. He didn't think he'd ever heard James really apologize before. It was a bit shocking, actually; even Neal and Kynthia blinked surprise. Then they smiled, Neal with a touch of embarrassment, and Kynthia with genuine warmth. The sixth year girl reached across the table and ruffled James's untidy black hair, making it stand up worse than ever. No one else would have ever done it, but that was Kynthia for you; free with affection and always looking out for everyone.

"Well, you're a good enough boy at heart, I suppose," she conceded. "Just try to pay more attention."

James didn't blush, but his ears turned red and he looked down at his plate, mumbling something incoherent.

"How are the Quidditch practices coming along?" Sirius asked, hoping to save his friend from any further embarrassment.

"Oh, quite well, I think," said Neal with a half-glance at Kynthia who nodded to him. "We've been working on some new tricks that we hope will be useful, especially against that new Hufflepuff Seeker… What was his name again?"

"Palmer," said Remus. "Aiden Palmer. He's really something, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he is," said Kynthia ruefully. "I totally underestimated him."

"So did everyone else," said Remus shrugging. "That was probably the point. But you stopped him that first time. That was brilliant, by the way, cutting under the other players like that. I don't know how you managed to keep track of Palmer in that mess to block him."

Kynthia smiled and began to explain. Sirius smiled, too, glad to see the pretty older girl relax again. She was an unusual build for a Seeker; though she was slim-figured, she was also quite tall, about five foot nine. Most Seekers were as small as you could find. Sirius suspected that Kynthia had probably worried on occasion that this would somehow put her and her team at a disadvantage. The loss to Hufflepuff would have made those vague worries much worse. Trust Remus to know just what to say to put her back at ease and seeing her strong points; Remus was good with people like that.

They continued discussing Quidditch for the rest of dinner. Afterward, Kynthia headed to the library with Frank, Merga, and Alice to study, Neal had prefect duties but he promised to join them later. Sirius thought he could guess what they wanted to talk about; politics. There had been some strange rumors flying around lately. Sirius didn't have a clue what it all meant, though, and he had to push away a small twinge of guilt that he wasn't paying better attention to things that he knew were important, even if he wasn't sure how it would affect him yet. Still, he told himself, as he followed James and the others up to Gryffindor Tower, it's not like I can do anything about what's going on. I've got enough to do as it is!

It was true, too. He had two essays due soon — one for History of Magic, due first thing in the morning, and one for Charms due the day after. He had another one for Potions, but he'd already done that one, thank goodness! He also had a spell to practice for Professor McGonagall and a chapter to read for Care of Magical Creatures. Sighing, he brought his homework and books down to the common room and joined his friends at a table to work. By the time they all finished and went to bed, Sirius was so tired he could hardly see to brush his teeth. He fell into bed and was asleep as soon as he hit the pillow.

Monday dawned bright and disgustingly cheerful. Sirius was exhausted. Though he'd fallen straight to sleep, he'd slept fitfully, plagued by strange and unsettling dreams which he couldn't remember but which left him feeling even more tired than he had before he slept. He stumbled his way through his classes, cobbled something together for Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, during the afternoon break, and practically slept through dinner. Afterwards, he sat in the common room by the fire with James and tried to get through the Care of Magical Creatures' chapter while Remus and Peter sat at a nearby table, Remus reading his book on theory again and Peter working on an essay, occasionally asking Remus for help. When the words on the pages started to swim and his eyes started to water, Sirius gave up. He stood.

"I'm headed to bed," he told his friends, yawning hugely. "Don't let me oversleep in the morning, 'kay?"

"Sure," said James, looking up at him. "Are you okay? You've been out of it all day."

"I'm fine," Sirius assured him. "Just really tired, that all." He waved vaguely at them, then stumbled off up the stairs to his bed.

No strange dreams disturbed him that night and he woke feeling much more alive than the day before. He ate his breakfast in a hurry, hoping to have time before Charms, his first class of the morning, to try to touch up his essay. Not, he realized later when he read what he'd written, that there was really much he could do with it. Not without having to do the whole thing over again, anyway, and he didn't have time. So, after correcting the spelling errors and making sure he hadn't left out any words, he resigned himself to turning the thing in. Professor Flitwick probably wouldn't be too happy with it, but what choice did he have?

After Charms, they all trekked downstairs and outside to the Greenhouses for Herbology where Professor Sprout set them to pruning Shrivelfigs while she quizzed them about it's uses. In Care of Magical Creatures, Professor Kettleburn had managed to capture a porlock for them to study. Sirius was glad when, instead of asking them questions, the professor told them to sketch the porlock. Sirius liked Care of Magical Creatures but he couldn't remember anything from the chapter he'd tried to read the night before. When the class ended, Sirius followed his friends back up to Gryffindor tower to dump their books and wash up for lunch.

"So," he said as they headed down the stairs to the great hall. "What do you think? Should we go to this pumpkin carving thing of Neal's?"

"I'm going," said Remus shrugging. "I think it sounds like fun."

"Yeah, let's go," said James. He had an odd look on his face. Sirius frowned, but before he could say anything Peter said, "But it could be dangerous. I heard from Cam that the knives have to be really sharp. I think we shouldn't."

"No," said James firmly. "We're going. Neal is our friend and my teammate."

Peter looked startled; James never gave orders like that. Remus's eyes sparkled with amusement.

"She really got to you, didn't she?" he said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said James loftily, sitting down at the Gryffindor table and beginning to serve himself. Sirius grinned. Whatever James might say, he knew Remus was right; James prized loyalty among friends and Kynthia's scolding the evening before had clearly made him feel a need to prove his.

So, after their classes for the day ended, they joined the crowd in one of the spare classrooms where Neal and some of his fifth year friends had set up shop. The desks were pushed together and covered with cloths to form little table stations throughout the room. Each station had an assortment of markers, knives, scoops, and other instruments Sirius didn't recognize. At the front of the room, piled high on the teacher's desk and spilling onto the floor around, were hundreds of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes.

Sirius whistled, impressed.

"Where do you suppose they got so many?" he asked.

"No idea," said James, eyeing the pile. "I'm more interested in how they got them all to stay like that."

"Grab a pumpkin," Neal was saying to the students as they arrived, "and then find a table. I'll explain once everyone gets here."

Sirius and his friends marched to the front of the room, chose their pumpkins, then went to join Cam and Liam at a table in the center of the room. More and more people trickled in until, finally, all the tables were full and Neal closed the classroom door.

"Alright," he said, making his way back up to the front of the room. "I think that everyone. Can everyone see me?" he asked the room at large. "Can you all hear me?"

Sounds of general assent filled the room.

"Good," said Neal. "Now, show of hands, how many of you have ever done this before?"

Hands went up around the room. Most people hadn't, but a fair few had.

"Excellent," said Neal approvingly. "It looks like you're about evenly spaced, too. Good. Those of you who know what you're doing can help the others. Now, I'm going to demonstrate up here how this is generally done. First, you have to hollow out the pumpkin. So you cut the top out, and scoop out the seeds and stuff from inside."

He showed them, and they all picked up knives to carve out the top of their pumpkins. Soon all the students were exclaiming in voices of mingled glee and disgust as they scooped out the slimy, stringy insides. Cam, laughing with delight, put down his scoop and began to attack his pumpkin with his bare hands.

Next, Neal showed them how to do the faces. The markers, it turned out, were so you could draw on a face so you would be less likely to mess up when you went to cut it out.

"You can do pretty much anything you like, really," Neal told them all. "It doesn't even have to be a face. Just be careful to make sure that everything attaches, or else you'll be missing bits. And don't worry too much, we've got plenty of pumpkins here if you want to try again."

Sirius grinned, looking at the still enormous pile of pumpkins behind Neal, then picked up a black marker and considered his pumpkin. He was half-tempted to try something other than a face, but then he looked at the sharp knives and decided to stick with simple and traditional, at least for starters. He uncapped the marker and began to draw a face on his pumpkin.

That, it turned out, was the easy part. While Neal had been right, and it seemed that there was little danger of anyone cutting themselves as long as they were careful, it was oddly difficult to control the sharp knives. Sirius now understood why drawing on a face or pattern was such a good idea; it meant you only had to worry about getting the blade to follow the lines, rather than trying to control the thing and have to sort of eyeball everything while making it all up at the same time. The curved lines of the mouth were hardest; the knife didn't want to cut anything but straight. By watching Lily surreptitiously at a nearby table, Sirius figured out that if you cut curving lines a bit at a time, it worked much better. By the time he finished his first pumpkin, Sirius felt he was starting to get the hang of this. Neal and Remus had been right, too; it _was _fun. Placing his first, slightly deranged looking pumpkin to one side, he went to pick out a second and have another go.

He hollowed it out quickly, placing the seeds and stringy bits into the large bowl that had been provided, then picked up a marker. He tapped the end against his mouth in thought, trying to decide what to do this time. Glancing about the room, he saw that most people were sticking to faces, but a few more adventurous souls were trying more complex things. A small Hufflepuff boy was busily sketching on a piece of paper, working out a design for a ghost, and Skye O'Hara was beginning to carve out a snitch. Kaysa and Chitral were also trying different things. Kaysa's design looked like a cat with its back arched, silhouetted against the full moon, with some thin clouds straying across the top of the moon. The design itself was fairly simple, but it looked striking and there were a lot of curving lines. Chitral, on the other hand, was attempting to carve out a creepy looking tree with lots of branches. Her lips were pursed in concentration and she used a small tool that looked more like something Sirius had seen girls use on their cuticles than a carving tool.

Sighing, Sirius decided not to try anything that complicated; for one thing he didn't think he had the patience, and he definitely wasn't good enough yet for another. He'd rather have one or two good-looking pumpkins with faces, than try something too hard and wind up with just a mess. Uncapping the marker again, he began to put a face on his pumpkin, making the mouth jagged this time and deciding to try adding angry eyebrows and see how it looked.

As he worked, he became aware of a soft sound; someone was humming. He looked around, trying to see who it was. Soon others were looking around too. The Sirius saw Kaysa; she was swaying slightly as she worked, in time to the humming. It was high and soft, pretty, yet strange, as thought the sound was meant for something almost otherworldly. Then Chitral picked it up, humming along with her cousin in harmony. Neither of them seemed to realize that they were attracting the attention of the others.

"What are you humming?" Lily finally asked them.

"What?" said Kaysa looking up, startled. "Oh, sorry." She blushed slightly, realizing what she'd been doing. "It's just this song… it's called _All Souls Night._ It's Celtic, I think."

"It sounded pretty," said Lily, smiling faintly at her friend.

"Er, it is," said Kaysa, still looking embarrassed. "Um —"

"Maybe you could sing it for us, sometime," Lily suggested.

"Yeah, maybe," said Kaysa. "But not now," she added, looking around. "It should really be done at night or something. Look, would everyone stop staring, please? It's rude."

"Kaysa," Chitral muttered, shooting her a glance as the rest of the students laughed quietly.

"Well, it is," said Kaysa. "I'm sure I'm not the only person here who's ever done something without really paying attention."

"Well, no, probably not," said Rigel grinning at her. "But you might be the only one who's done so so obviously."

Kaysa stuck her tongue out at him and sat down. Picking up her knife again, she focused pointedly on her pumpkin carving. Lily hid a smile. Chitral shook her head and patted Kaysa on the head, causing Kaysa to glower at her. Everyone else went back to work. A few minutes later, another noise made Sirius look up. One of the younger kids had finished his pumpkin and was showing it to his friend.

"Whooo!" he said, shaking the pumpkin, making it 'talk.' His friend laughed and held up his own pumpkin, making it growl back. Sirius blinked, then elbowed James. An idea had just hit him.

"What?" asked James.

"Do we know a good spell to make things move? You know, like they're alive?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know. I mean, we know that spell for making teacups with legs, so I guess there must be one for whatever you're looking for somewhere," said James. "Why?"

"Because I've just had an idea for our Halloween fun," said Sirius, nodding at the first years, who were now all chasing each other around with their pumpkins.

James watched them for a moment, then his eyes lit up.

"Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?" he asked, turning to Sirius.

Sirius just grinned, broad and mischievous at him. James grinned back, a wicked humor in his hazel eyes.

"Sirius, you are a genius!" he all but crowed. "Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! Okay, you guys," he said turning to the others. "Library after this. We've got work to do."

"Work?" Peter squeaked, clearly thinking James meant homework. "Did we forget something?"

"I don't think he means that kind of work," said Remus, eyeing James suspiciously. "What are you two plotting?"

James opened his mouth to explain, but Sirius said, "Later." Cam and Liam and a few others were watching them with interest. He didn't want to ruin the surprise for them by talking too openly. Not to mention the trouble they'd probably be in if any of the teachers found out.

When everyone was finished carving pumpkins, Neal told them they could either keep their pumpkins, or leave them in the classroom to be used around the castle as decorations. Sirius hesitated for a moment, then decided to keep his first pumpkin but leave the one with the eyebrows for the decorating. It was the better looking of the two and he wouldn't mind having it on display. Plus, it occurred to him that, if he and the others managed to find the spell or spells they'd need to pull off the prank, he wouldn't want it to be with anything that might be easily recognized as being his. He didn't think he'd seen any other pumpkins with eyebrows.

In the library, he and James explained their plan to Remus and Peter. Remus agreed as soon as he was sure that no one would get hurt, and they got to work. They found a few spells that were close, but too likely to get someone actually injured since the spells were all offensive ones, or else way too advanced for any of them to reliably maintain control over. James, however, thought that they might be able to achieve the effect they were looking for by combining a few different, less complicated spells and charms.

They went to dinner and ate quickly, hardly hearing what anyone said to them. If they wanted to be able to get their hands of some pumpkins for this, they would need to be among the first to leave the table. They had planned everything ahead of time in the library: James and Sirius would leave first, going up to Gryffindor Tower to get James's Invisibility Cloak — a gift from his father, who'd gotten it from his father — and something to carry their loot in. They would then meet Remus and Peter but the corridor to the spare classroom where the pumpkins were, waiting for the prefects and teachers to come and start placing them about the castle for tomorrow.

"Remus," James murmured from under the Invisibility Cloak with Sirius. Remus looked around, not that it did him any good.

"We're here," James assured him quietly. "Come on."

They headed down the corridor to the classroom and ducked inside quickly. James pulled off the invisibility cloak.

"Right. Here," he handed the cloak to Peter. "You two stand guard. One of you stay visible — Remus, maybe that should be you, you can sit and read. If anyone comes by and asks questions just say you're waiting for Peter to get out of the bathroom or something. Peter, you keep under the cloak and if someone comes by, get in here and we'll all get under it so we're not found incase they make it past Remus."

"Okay," said Peter.

"Got it," Remus nodded. Peter put on the cloak and they left. Sirius and James turned to their own job: stealing some pumpkins.

The classroom was dark; the lights were out and there were no windows here to let in any natural light.

"_Lumos_," James whispered, holding his wand high. They made their way to the front of the classroom by the wandlight, careful not to trip on anything and make noise. When they reached the pile of carved jack-o-lanterns, Sirius said, "How many do you think we need?"

"Dunno," said James, thinking. "I think we should have five at least, and probably a few extra in case we don't get it right the first time."

"So about eight," said Sirius. "That's going to be hard to fit under the cloak."

"That's why I brought this," said James with a smug smile. He pulled a little flask out of his robes and showed it to Sirius. "Shrinking Solution," he explained. "I nicked it from potions class the other day when Slughorn wasn't watching."

"Good thinking," said Sirius, wondering why James had bothered; it wasn't like they'd known they'd need it, not til now. "But do you also have some Swelling Solution? We'll need to able to make them big again."

"I've got some back in my trunk," said James. He aimed the wandlight at the pumpkins. "Come on, we need to make sure they're good ones."

Quickly but carefully, making sure they took ones that would be well suited to their purposes, they gathered eight jack-o-lanterns. James used a drop of Shrinking Solution on each one and Sirius placed the now fist-sized pumpkins into the pillowcase he'd brought.

"Right, let's get out of here."

They made their way back to the door as quietly as they could.

"Peter," James hissed. "Peter! Are you there?"

The door opened, then shut. A moment later Peter appeared as he pulled off the cloak.

"All done?" he asked.

"Yeah," said James. "What's it like out there? All clear?"

"For now," said Peter. "But we'd better hurry. People are starting to leave dinner. I could hear them in the hall."

"Alright," said James. "You go on out and go back to the common room with Remus. We'll follow under the cloak. It'd be odd, after all, since we already left, if we were to be seen going back again."

Peter looked slightly confused at this, but understood his part well enough. He nodded and left. Sirius picked up the pillowcase and James threw the cloak over them. They opened the door just enough to peer out. Seeing that the cost was clear, they slipped out into the corridor and made their way up to the seventh floor and the portrait hole, taking care not to bump into anyone as they went. They were relieved to find that Remus had waited for them at the portrait hole, though none of them had thought of it beforehand. James tapped Remus on the shoulder. Remus looked up from his book. James tapped him again. Without saying anything, Remus stood, gave the password, and then waited a moment for James and Sirius to enter before coming in himself, the Fat Lady swinging shut behind him.

As Remus went to join Peter at a table with homework, Sirius and James crept the stairs to their dormitory. Entering, they found with relief that no one else was there and pulled off the cloak.

"You realize," said Sirius, stowing the stolen pumpkins in his school trunk, "that we're either going to have to sneak out again to figure out how to do this, or else wait up most of the night to get the common room to ourselves."

"Yeah, I know," said James. "This was your idea, don't tell me you're going to let a bit of trouble like this stop you."

"Of course not!" said Sirius, offended. "I just wanted to make sure you knew not to go to bed before we work all this out, that's all."

James grinned at him.

"Yeah, well, for now, we'd better get back to the common room and do some homework. Wouldn't do to look suspicious, now, would it?"

Sirius laughed; they were both perfectly well aware that, no matter what they did to avoid suspicion, their names were likely to head the suspect list. Though they rarely got to pull off stuff of this caliber, they were notorious trouble-makers, always willing to risk detention for a good laugh.

Grabbing up their homework, they went to join Remus and Peter at their table.

"Thanks," Sirius murmured to Remus as he sat down across from the werewolf. "That was good thinking to wait for us."

"Yeah," James agreed. "It would have been interesting trying to get back in otherwise."

"No problem," said Remus shrugging. "After all, you two can't be expected to think of everything."

"Thinking?" echoed Sirius. "What are you talking about? We don't think! That's what we keep you around for!"

They all laughed at that. Sirius grinned. The thought had struck him suddenly, as it did sometimes at odd moments, just how much he loved having friends who really got him; who accepted him and his opinions as was and didn't try to change him or think there was something wrong with him because of those opinions. It made for such a nice change from his family and he hoped he never stopped appreciating the difference.

Sudden laughter interrupted his musings. Sirius looked about and spotted Kaysa, Chitral, Lily, and Heather all sprawled out on the floor playing Exploding Snap, but the cards hadn't exploded yet, so Sirius assumed that they must have been laughing at something someone said. Kaysa was blushing slightly. As the others reigned in their giggles she said, "Come on, it's not my fault! I was working, not thinking about what I was doing."

"Or saying, evidently," said Heather grinning at the girl. "You seriously told the whole room to stop staring because it was rude?"

"Yes," said Kaysa, and Sirius suddenly knew what they were talking about. Heather hadn't been at the pumpkin carving earlier; Lily and the others must have told her about Kaysa's absent humming and subsequent telling off of an entire room.

"And did they stop?" Heather inquired lightly.

"No," said Kaysa sounding put out. "In fact, I think they stared a bit more after that."

"And you're surprised?" said Heather incredulously.

"Oh, shut up," Kaysa grumbled. "I'm still not quite used to your ways. Back home, no one would have minded if I'd suddenly started singing."

"I don't think it's that we minded," said Lily fairly. "It was just unusual, that's all."

"People do not sing much here then?" Kaysa asked frowning.

"Not randomly," said Heather. "Not unless they're crazy, anyway."

"I'm sorry," said Kaysa. "That must be so boring."

Lily laughed.

"You think some random singing would liven us up some?" she asked smiling.

"It's fun," Kaysa explained. "And when you get everyone doing it, you feel closer, more connected to them."

Chitral nodded agreement. Lily put her head to one side, considering. Sirius, without even realizing it, mimicked her, trying to imagine what it would be like to get everyone in the Gryffindor common room singing together.

"Hm," said Lily. "I suppose you could be right. Of course, you're assuming everyone can sing. Some of us probably can't."

"Really?" said Chitral, piping up suddenly. She sounded startled. "Does no one teach you how?"

"It's not like that," Heather explained. "It's just that some people can't carry a tune. My mother can't, not at all. And I'm not too good at it myself."

"Oh," said Chitral, looking at Kaysa. "I didn't know that could happen."

"Me either," said Kaysa.

Now it was Heather and Lily's turn to look startled.

"You've never heard of being tone-deaf?" asked Heather. The girls shook their heads.

"Huh," said Lily. "I guess everyone must be pretty musical wherever you come from then. Speaking of singing, though, why don't you two sing that song you were humming for us now. You promised you would."

"When did we promise that?" asked Chitral, looking alarmed at the prospect of having to sing with so many people around. Her eyes darted around the packed common room. "I never promised to sing anything."

"No, I did," said Kaysa. "Well, sort of, anyway. But are you sure this is an appropriate time? I don't fancy people staring at me like I'm bonkers again."

"I think it'll be okay," said Lily, smiling.

Kaysa hesitated, then said, "Okay. Chi, you sing harmony."

"But—" Chitral began.

"Come on, please?" said Lily. "I heard you humming too. You two sounded so pretty together."

"But I — I — oh, alright," Chitral relented as Lily made puppy-dog eyes at her.

"What are you looking at?" James asked Sirius, calling his attention away from the girls.

"Nothing," he said, quickly bending his head over his work once more. The last thing he needed just now was for James to say something where Kaysa might hear him. Then Kaysa began to sing. Sirius stopped working. So did James. So did Peter and Remus. They all turned to stare.

_Bonfires __dot the rolling hills _

_Figures dance around and around _

_To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness _

_Moving to the pagan sound. _

_Somewhere in a hidden memory _

_Images float before my eyes _

_Of fragrant nights of straw and of bonfires _

_And dancing till the next sunrise. _

Kaysa's voice was beautiful; high and clear, her strange accent somehow fitting with the words, making the song feel old and ethereal.

_I can see lights in the distance _

_Trembling in the dark cloak of night _

_Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing _

_A waltz on All, All Souls Night. _

The tune was beautiful, soft and lilting. Chitral took the next verse, her own voice lower than Kaysa's and just a bit husky. Kaysa let her voice fade into the background, providing a faint harmony.

_Figures of cornstalks bend in the shadows _

_Held up tall as the flames leap high _

_The green knight holds the holly bush _

_To mark where the old year passes by. _

Then they both took up the chorus again, Chitral setting her own mellow alto voice against Kaysa's clear soprano one.

_I can see the lights in the distance _

_Trembling in the dark cloak of night _

_Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing _

_A waltz on All, All Souls Night. _

_Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides _

_Figures dance around and around _

_To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness _

_And moving to the pagan sound. _

_Standing on the bridge that crosses _

_The river that goes out to the sea _

_The wind is full of a thousand voices _

_They pass by the bridge and me. _

_I can see the lights in the distance _

_Trembling in the dark cloak of night _

_Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing _

_A waltz on All, All Souls Night. _

_I can see the lights in the distance _

_Trembling in the dark cloak of night _

_Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing _

_A waltz on All, All Souls Night. _

They had sung the last verse and the final choruses together in perfect and haunting harmony. Now, as they faded out into silence, the whole common room, which had been listening to them, silent and entranced, burst into applause. Even James clapped.

"That was beautiful," said Kynthia. "Where did you two learn to sing like that?"

"Home," said Kaysa. Her face was red but she looked pleased. "Everyone learns to sing where we come from. At least, while you're still a child, anyway. They don't make adults sing if they don't want to."

"But a lot keep coming," Chitral added. "It helps them feel like part of the community, I guess."

"Why aren't you two in the chorus here?" Cam demanded. "You'd be brilliant!"

"Er," said Kaysa hesitantly; she looked embarrassed again. "We, er, didn't know, when we were signing up for classes, that things would go like this. Er…"

"You mean, you didn't know you'd be talking," said Sirius, smirking at her a little.

"Well, yes," she said, eyeing him critically. "After all, if we weren't even speaking to people, how on earth were we supposed to sing at them?"

"Yes, I suppose that would be a bit of a problem, wouldn't it?" James drawled, lounging back on two chair legs.

Kaysa's lips twitched.

"Yes, I think it probably would," she agreed, matching his lazy tone. She held his eyes with her own, her face a perfect mask of haughtiness. James broke first. Grinning, he let his chair fall back to all fours.

"Why didn't you ever speak?" he asked her curiously.

"English is… strange," she told him slowly. "Difficult. At first, it was hard enough just understanding what people were saying, never mind trying to formulate a response. After that, I guess it was just easier to keep quiet. Everyone else had friends, people to talk to. Chi and I just had each other."

"Only 'cause you never talked," Sirius pointed out reasonably, inserting himself into the conversation. He wasn't sure he liked Kaysa and James paying each other so much attention. Kaysa turned to look at him with those emerald eyes of hers and he felt odd all of a sudden; lightheaded.

"True," she said, nodding. "But, again, the whole understanding thing…"

"Oh," said Sirius, silently cursing himself for blushing. Who the hell had designed people to display embarrassment so obviously? Kaysa grinned at him; it did not help.

"What do you mean, English is strange?" Remus wanted to know. He had turned around in his chair to face them and was now leaning forward, his blue eyes alight with curiosity.

"Our language is different," Kaysa explained, ignoring the warning look Chitral shot her. Sirius had just enough brain-function left to wonder why their language was supposed to be some kind of secret or whatever. It wasn't like people didn't know they were foreign.

"We have more words," Kaysa continued. "More… I don't know. More ways to be specific, I guess. Back home, when someone says something, there's no way for anyone to misunderstand. With your language, so much needs to be inferred. You all are used to it, you have been doing it your whole lives. But we haven't, so it took us a while to figure things out."

"What, you mean like, you don't have context where you come from?" Remus looked confused.

"No," said Kaysa, her eyebrows knitting. "Actually, I think we have more. Just… clearer. I think, anyway." She shrugged and Lily yawned.

"It's late," she said. "I think I'll turn in. Night, Kaysa, Chitral."

"G'night!" the cousins chorused as Lily and Heather stood to leave. They waved sleepily, then vanished up the stairs to the girls dormitories.

"I still don't really get it," said Remus, after a moment.

Chitral sighed.

"Don't worry about it," she told him. "Any longer explanation would take all night at least. And even then you might not get it."

"That complicated, huh?" said Sirius, raising an eyebrow at her. Chitral shrugged and stood up.

"Only if you're not used to it. Come on, Kaysa, I'm tired, too."

"What, already?" said Kaysa looking up at her. Chitral looked back steadily. Kaysa sighed. "Oh, you're no fun anymore! Alright, let's go." She got to her feet and followed Chitral up the stairs.

"Weird," said Remus looking after them.

"What? You mean all that about languages?" said James. Remus nodded. "Yeah, I guess. But it makes sense, doesn't it, that other languages wouldn't be structured the same as ours."

Remus grunted; it sounded like agreement, but Sirius could see he was still thinking about it.

"Anyway," James went on, "who cares? We've got more important things to work out. Come on, let's get this homework finished, then we can got to the real business."

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**_(Kaysa)_**

"Are you quite sane?" Chitral demanded. Kaysa looked up at her; they were sitting on Kaysa's bed with the curtains drawn so they wouldn't wake the other girls. And, for some reason, Chitral seemed furious.

"I do believe myself to be sane, at least most of the time," she replied calmly. "Why?"

"You were talking about home!" Chitral hissed. "We can't do that!"

"Why not?" Kaysa protested. "It's not like I said anything much. And it'd be weird if we never talked about home. Everyone else does. People would notice if we refused to answer questions about it."

"I don't care," said Chitral flatly. "They already think we're weird. What's one more count of strangeness? Damn it, Kaysa, things are finally getting good! Don't blow it by getting careless now!"

Kaysa stared at her cousin. If she'd been anyone else, she'd have just snarled her into submission. But Chitral was Family and her best friend. You didn't do that to Family unless absolutely necessary.

"I won't blow it," she said as patiently as she could. "I like it here. We're learning new things and now we're even making friends. But I think it's okay to talk about home as long as we keep in general. After all, what can they make of it? That we come from somewhere where people like to learn and are taught to sing, and that's about it."

"I still don't think it's a good idea," argued Chitral. "These people aren't stupid. And I don't like how interested Lupin seemed. He's clever, him and his friends. If they decide to go poking around they might come back with questions we can't answer."

"Why would they go poking around?" said Kaysa blankly. "James is their leader and he's not interested. Not enough to waste time trying to figure us out, anyway."

"Just because he won't doesn't mean the others won't either," warned Chitral. "They might be herd creatures, but they're not prey. They won't always do as the group does."

"Oh well," said Kaysa. "What's done is done. Anyway, it's only that one group, none of the others seem too curious."

"Mn, yes" said Chitral darkly. "Begging the question: Why is it always them? Are they just curious? Or do they already suspect something?"

For that, Kaysa had no answer.

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

It had taken Sirius and his friends most of the night to work out how to make the magic work for their Halloween surprise, and the rest of the night, or morning really, to find a place to set it up without getting caught. They were all tired in the morning, thought Sirius thought he and James had it worse; they had decided to let Remus and Peter sleep while they looked for a place on the basis that, with fewer of them under the cloak, they were less likely to be spotted accidentally by any of the teachers on duty. The Invisibility Cloak was big, but it was starting to get a bit crowded with all four of them underneath it these days.

Still, Sirius thought as he dragged himself through his morning classes, it was worth it. Or it would be. Whichever. He didn't really care; the point was that their plan would work and Sirius couldn't wait to see the results.

The nicest thing about it was that some of the magic they'd had to use was so complicated that the teachers would probably never be able to prove it was them, even if they did suspect. And the best part of _that _was that once you knew what you were doing, it really wasn't that complicated at all. Oh, it was brilliant, sure, and it had taken them forever to work it out, but the truth was all the spells they used were actually quite simple ones; they'd just had to adjust a few and then figure out the right way to layer them on.

It was going to be excellent.

As the day wore on, Sirius could feel the tension, the anticipation growing between him and his friends as they waited for something to happen. Finally, towards the end of Charms — their last class for the day, Herbology and Astronomy having been cancelled for the Halloween Feast — they heard the tell-tale sounds of high-pitched shrieks and running feet. Professor Flitwick tried to call the class to order, but no luck; everyone was out of their seats and rushing for the door, trying to see what was going on. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter followed the throng, trying not to look too eager. Pushing their way to the front of the crowd they looked expectantly down the corridor, where more classroom doors were flying open as the students all waited to see what was going on.

They didn't have to wait long. A moment later a group of first years and a couple of second years came racing around the corner, screaming in a mixture of terror and delight, and it was easy to see why. Flying along behind them, 'whoo!'-ing and cackling, green tendril vines extended and grabbing, were four jack-o-lanterns.

The watching classes shrieked and laughed as the group ran through the hall. Sirius waited. Beside him, he could feel James practically quivering with anticipation.

The first years flew around the corner at the end of the hall. There was a moment of silence, then they screamed louder than ever and Sirius could hear the squeak of sneakers scrambling for purchase on the polished stone floor. Then the first years cam careening back around the corner and back down the hall, this time with all five jack-o-lanterns chasing them.

_YES!_ Sirius thought, fighting hard to contain a whoop. James grabbed his arm hard and shook him in ecstatic triumph.

The fifth jack-o-lantern had been their masterpiece. It had taken most of what was left of James's stolen Swelling Potion, but that didn't matter now. The thing was enormous, nearly four feet around and just as tall. They had managed to animate the face so that it didn't just cackle and howl, but also grinned evilly and snapped its jaws. The vine tendrils had been difficult; it was easy enough to get something to grow, but getting it to stop at the correct point if growth was more complicated. They'd managed it though. And now, standing in the halls with the rest of the school, everyone laughing as the pumpkin chase after the students, snapping and grasping at them, it was all worth it.

James turned to Sirius, grinning manically.

"That was awesome!" he gasped. "Best Halloween ever!"

Sirius couldn't have agreed more.

* * *

A/N: there you go! hope you liked it. if anyone has any ideas for more Marauder's pranks, jokes, etc, please send them to me! i have a feeling that this is going to be a very long fic and i worry i'll run out of ideas...

also, please review so i know what people are thinking!

~SilverKit'sFire

PS ~ i just realized; i finally solved my 'this-line-break-should-actually-be-stars-but-won't-work' problem... you've probably noticed... but i felt like i should mention it, just incase.


	7. All Souls Night

disclaimer: HP and it's characters are not mine, just Kaysa, Chitral, and a few others out of necessity.

A/N: it's really long... please tell me if these chapters are getting too long and i'll try to do something about it! (feel free to tell me anything else, too. i'd love some reviews ^_^)

* * *

_**All Souls Night**_

The only trouble, Sirius thought, with pulling off a prank like that in the middle of the day was that it meant that you couldn't really celebrate your success. At lease, not if you didn't want to get caught, anyway. By the time the Halloween Feast started, just a few hours later, the whole school seemed to have heard about the flying jack-o-lanterns chasing the first and second years through the halls. Everyone also seemed to know that Professor McGonagall had called James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter to her office some short while later, which meant that now nearly everyone was convinced that Sirius and his friends were behind it.

"Good one, Potter," said Jason Mills, one of the Beaters, as Sirius and James sat down to the feast. "Damn brilliant!"

"We saw it," added Rigel. "It was excellent! How'd you do it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," said James smoothly. "We didn't do it. Didn't you hear? Professor McGonagall let us go."

"Oh, right," said Kynthia sarcastically. "Because that just means so much. Come on, guys, that sort of thing is just right up you alley."

"Who, us?" said Sirius, making his eyes big and round. "Us? Torment first years? Never! Really, Kynthia, how can you even think it?"

Beside Sirius, Remus choked on his pumpkin juice. Peter covered his mouth with his napkin. James put on his best innocent look.

"Yes, really, Kynthia," he said, sounding wounded. "We would never do such a thing. Just think of the trouble we might get into!"

Remus and Peter lost it. So did the rest of the Gryffindor table. The idea of James and Sirius caring about getting into trouble was ludicrous. Still, while he knew that everyone was pretty sure that they'd done it, Sirius wished they could actually take credit. Unfortunately, while Professor McGonagall was, for now, unable to prove them responsible and so hadn't punished them or taken any points from Gryffindor, they were all quite sure that if she ever could, she would be only too happy to do so. Therefore they had all agreed that, even with their fellow students, denial was the best policy.

Later that night, however, as the common room began to empty, James asked them all, very quietly, "So, anyone feel like a proper reward for all our hard work?"

"Definitely," said Sirius, before Remus could protest. "What'd you have in mind?"

"Do you suppose the kitchen house elves have any butterbeer?" said James, by way of answer.

"They might," said Sirius grinning.

"And we could get some more food, too," Peter put in hopefully.

"How can you still be hungry?" Remus asked staring at him. "After all we had to eat at the feast, I'm stuffed!"

"Well, I'm not," said Peter shrugging. "Come on, Remus. We could have a bit of a party."

"Where?" Remus demanded. "It's way after curfew. McGonagall's looking for any excuse to put us in detention. She wasn't at all happy about our little joke; she thinks it was too much for the first years. If we're caught out of bed —"

"Oh, quit worrying, would you?" begged James. "That was some good magic. I think we deserve a treat." When Remus still looked hesitant he added, "Look, we'll take the Invisibility Cloak, if it makes you feel any better, alright?"

"And we'll come straight back? No fooling about in the halls?"

"Yeah, okay, fine. Now will you come on?"

Remus hesitated a moment longer, but Sirius knew James had won; Remus was more studious and better behaved than he and James were in general, but Sirius was sure that a part of him enjoyed breaking rules and taking risks just as much as they did. He just needed them to convince him, that was all. Finally Remus nodded and James dashed up the stairs to retrieve the cloak.

Moving through the halls with all four of them under the cloak was not easy anymore. They still fit under it, but not very well. Sirius had been rather pleased when he'd realized he'd grown an inch or so over the summer, but now, crouched down under the cloak with the others, he could see that it had its drawbacks.

"Can't we go any faster?" he asked quietly. "It's not easy, walking like this."

"I'm afraid if we go any faster, our feet will show," James whispered back.

"Maybe there's a spell we could use to make this thing bigger?" Peter suggested as they stopped at a corner.

"I doubt it," said James. "Not one that wouldn't mess it up, anyway."

"All clear," said Remus, who had poked his head around the corner to look.

"Okay, let's go," said James.

By the time they made it to the painting of the fruit bowl that led to the kitchens, Sirius's knees were creaking and his thighs were on fire from his prolonged crouch. Checking to be sure no one was around to see, James reached out a hand and tickled the pear. It giggled and turned into a door handle. Quickly, they pulled of the cloak, opened the door, and slipped inside.

The room they entered was enormous; high-ceilinged and stone-walled, it was a large as the Great Hall itself. A great brick fireplace graced the opposite end of the room, and the firelight glinted off of the many brass pots and pans that hung from the walls. The tables, in the center of the room, were set up to mirror exactly the ones in the Great Hall directly above them, providing a fascinating explanation to how food always just seemed to appear on plates and dishes at meals.

As they entered, a hundred little house elves bowed and curtsied and asked what they could do to be of service. Sirius grinned. He had never liked house elves before, his family's own house elf, Kreature, being far too much his mother's creature to be anything like pleasant. These house elves, however, he didn't mind at all. They were cheerful and polite and seemed almost desperate to please, offering food and tea and whatever else they had. When James asked if they happened to have any butterbeer around, four bottles were presented to them immediately.

Finally, laden with as much food as they could carry under the cloak, they left, thanking the house elves. James threw the cloak back over them and they began making their way back to Gryffindor Tower.

It was much harder to walk under the cloak carrying all the food than it had been on the way down. Holding onto their spoils meant that they couldn't hold the cloak as well to be sure it stayed on them. As they made their slow progress Sirius kept worrying that one of them would step on it somehow or it would catch on something and come off. Then, as they reached the staircase, James called them all to a sudden halt.

"What is it?" Remus murmured.

"I though I heard something," said James quietly, peering up the dark stairs. They all fell silent, listening. Sirius strained his ears. He was about to say he didn't hear anything when the faint sound of footsteps reached him. The others had clearly heard it too; as one, they backed away to fetch up against the opposite wall. They stopped and stood still, waiting.

Two shadowy figures appeared at the top of the stairs. It was too dark to see who it was, but they were moving in a slow, careful manner that made Sirius pretty sure it they weren't teachers. The figures began to creep down the stairs, making hardly a sound. Sirius envied them their stealth; he wasn't sure he could walk that softly if he tried. Then, as they drew closer to the bottom of the stairs, he realized who it was.

"What are they doing here?" Peter hissed softly.

"No idea," James breathed, watching as Kaysa and Chitral reached the end of the staircase and ghosted to the door to one of the halls. "Let's see, shall we?"

Sirius half-expected Remus to argue that they had promised to head straight back to the common room, but he didn't, following James willingly. Apparently what could have brought the two girls out so late had pricked his curiosity enough to overpower his worries about getting into trouble. Sirius couldn't say he blamed him; Kaysa and Chitral might be strange, but Sirius hadn't pegged them as the type to skulk around in the dark.

Quick as they could, Sirius and the others followed the two girls through the door and down the corridor, keeping back far enough not to be noticed, but close enough that they wouldn't lose them in the dark castle.

The cousins paused for a moment at the end of the hall. Kaysa peeked around the corner then looked at Chitral. They nodded to each other, then disappeared into the next corridor.

"Come on," whispered James. He led them quickly around the corner — And straight into Kaysa. Sirius nearly bowled James over as his friend pulled up sharply to avoid running smack into the girl. Then, before any of them could do anything, Kaysa reached out a hand and pulled the Invisibility Cloak off, revealing all four of them.

Peter squeaked in surprise. James clapped a hand over his mouth to silence him, then looked anxiously about the corridor.

"Don't worry," said Chitral silkily, sliding out of the shadows behind them and nearly giving Sirius a heart attack. "No teachers here."

"Nice little toy, this," said Kaysa, holding up the Invisibility Cloak, a smug look on her face. "Too bad you all thunder like a herd of elephants."

"How did you know we were there?" James demanded. "We weren't making that much noise."

Kaysa regarded him coolly as Chitral came to stand beside her.

"You made enough," she said.

"Never mind that," said Sirius. "What are you doing here?"

"I might ask you the same thing," Kaysa retorted. She seemed different in the darkness somehow. Confident, as if she belonged there in a way Sirius and his friends did not. Even the shy Chitral seemed more sure of herself now. It was as if what they showed people by day was only a shadow of their true selves.

"We were just out for a bit of a snack," said James calmly, letting go of Peter and indicating their armfuls of food.

"Ah," said Chitral, eyeing him mildly. "And following us? What was your purpose in that, I wonder."

Peter stepped closer to James and Sirius, looking nervous.

"W-we were j-just curious —" he stammered.

"We wanted to know what you were up to," James interrupted quickly, shrugging in a relaxed way, as if it hardly mattered. "So, what are you doing?"

Kaysa looked at them, her gaze calculating. Then she looked at Chitral and raised her eyebrows. Chitral pursed her lips, but said nothing. Kaysa looked back at Sirius and James, her eyes narrowing, then she nodded, evidently coming to some kind of decision.

"Here now, what's this? Students out of bed?"

They all jumped and turned to see a tall, dark-haired man coming down the hall towards them. Though Sirius had never seen him before, he had to be one of the teachers. He swore silently to himself; even at its best, this looked bad. He, James, Remus, and Peter were all carrying food stolen from the kitchens where students weren't supposed to go, and, to make matters worse, Kaysa was still holding James's Invisibility Cloak.

"Now then," said the teacher, "what's all this about? What do you all think you're doing out so late?"

"It's All Souls Night, sir," said Kaysa easily. "My cousin and I, we wish to perform the ceremony that will keep us all safe from the spirit world on this night."

Sirius frowned at her; her accent was suddenly much thicker than it had been just a minute ago.

"I'm sorry, I don't follow," said the teacher, confused.

"All Souls Night! All Hallows Eve, Halloween," said Kaysa earnestly, her green eyes wide. "I've been reading, sir. All cultures agree that this night is one where the barrier between the Otherworld and our world — the mortal world — is at it's thinnest. At midnight, there are rituals you can perform to keep a place safe, to keep anything from crossing over."

She looked dead serious. Beside her, Chitral was nodding fervently. The teacher stared at them.

"You read about this?" he said at last.

"Oh yes," said Chitral. "It's a very old magic, you see."

"I see," said the teacher slowly. He still looked a bit suspicious, but the accents were clearly throwing him. "And what's that, I wonder."

Sirius froze; he'd noticed the cloak still in Kaysa's hands. James gasped very quietly. Kaysa's eyes flicked to him. It was only for a second, but Sirius saw it, a look of horrible glee in those emerald pools, then she looked back at the teacher.

For one terrible moment, Sirius thought she would tell him what it really was, but then she said, "Just a bit of cloth I had lying around. I thought it could come in handy for the ceremony."

Sirius started breathing again. Next to him, he could feel James almost sag with relief.

"I see," said the teacher again. He frowned at Kaysa and Chitral for a moment, then turned to the boys. "And what about you four?" he asked. "I recognize you, Mr. Potter. What are you up to now?"

"We —" James began, then faltered.

"We're with them," said Sirius quickly, nodding to the girls.

"Are you now?" said the man, clearly not buying it. He turned back to Kaysa and Chitral. "Is that so, Miss. …"

"Kaysa," Kaysa supplied, her eyes on Sirius, who shot her a brief pleading look. "And, yes, they are. They heard us talking about what we'd read and were interested. I invited them to come along to the midnight rites."

Sirius sent her a look that said 'thanks.' She sent one back that said, quite plainly, 'you _so_ owe me.' The teacher had turned back to him and his friends.

"And the food," he wanted to know. "What is it for?"

"Offerings, of course," said Kaysa smoothly. "To appease the spirits."

The matter of fact way she said it seemed to convince the man. He sighed.

"You still would have had to steal it from the kitchens," he said wearily. "Students aren't —"

"Does it really count as stealing?" asked James, putting his head to one side and sounding genuinely puzzled. "I mean, the house elves just sort of give it to you."

"Students are not supposed to know where the kitchens are," said the teacher, but he didn't sound as though his heart were in it anymore.

"Seriously?" said Kaysa. "I mean, the door is not exactly hidden, is it? A huge painting full of food, and we are not supposed to work out where it goes?"

The man gave up.

"Alright, alright," he said, holding up his hands to silence them. "But you need to go back to your dormitory now."

"But, sir, the rites —" Kaysa started to say.

"You needn't worry," he assured her, rubbing his head with one hand. "I promise you, we will be perfectly safe here, whatever the state of the wall or whatever between us and the spirits."

"But—"

"Enough. The old religions did not get everything right, I assure you. Now, off to bed, the lot of you. If I catch you out here on my way back I will have to put you all in detention." And with that, he swept off down the corridor, continuing his rounds.

An awkward silence fell in his wake as the two groups stood eyeing each other.

"Thanks," James said finally.

Kaysa said nothing.

"That was some pretty quick thinking there," James tried again. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone lie so well."

Kaysa raised an eyebrow.

"Who said I was lying?" she asked.

More silence, then, "You mean, you really were out here to perform some crazy ancient ritual?" said Remus.

"The old religions may not have gotten everything right," said Kaysa mildly. "But they didn't get everything wrong, either."

"Er, can I have the cloak back, now?" asked James.

Kaysa shook out the cloak and held it up, inspecting it.

"Look, I said thanks, alright?" said James impatiently. "It was good of you not to tell him, but now I need it back. Okay?"

Kaysa shrugged, folded the cloak back up and tossed it to him.

"Alright then," she said briskly. "Let's go."

"What?" said James blankly, catching it with one hand so he didn't drop his cache of food. Kaysa had already started to walk down the corridor, continuing on her original course towards the grounds. James stared at her. "You're still going out? After you just got caught?"

"You're kidding, right?" said the girl, stopping to look back at him. "We basically just got a free pass. Of course I'm going. Now come on."

"You want us to come with you," said James doubtfully.

"May as well," she said. "And bring that food. It'll save us the trouble."

James hesitated and looked at Sirius. Sirius shrugged at him; he was game. Then they both looked at Remus. Peter, Sirius knew, would follow him and James most anywhere, but Remus had always been a little more cautious. Their friend, however, was staring after the girls, his light blue eyes bright with curiosity.

"Well?" he said. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

They followed the girls through the dark hallways and out onto the grounds. It was dark outside but neither Kaysa nor Chitral seemed to have a problem telling where they were going. Confidently, they made their way across the great lawn. At first, Sirius thought they were heading for the lake but the girls didn't stop at its shore. Instead they kept going, straight towards the Forbidden Forest.

"We're going into the forest?" exclaimed Peter, who seemed to have reached the same conclusion. He stopped, forcing Sirius, James, and Remus to pull up too. Kaysa turned around.

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

"We can't go in there," said Peter; his eyes were wide and fearful. "There's all sorts of things supposed to live in the forest. It's not safe."

"Of course there's things living in there," said Kaysa. "It's a forest. Don't worry. We've been out here before. There's a clearing not too far in hereabouts. We'll be perfectly safe."

"How do you know?" That was Remus. Sirius glanced at him; his eyes were narrowed and his voice sharp.

"Wild creatures don't like humans," Kaysa shrugged. "There's enough of us to keep them away."

"What about the centaurs?" asked James. "They're probably not afraid of people."

"This isn't part of their territory," said Kaysa. "Now are you coming or not?"

They hesitated, then James said, "Fine, but if we all get eaten or something, I blame you."

Kaysa snorted in amusement.

"I don't think you need to worry about that," she said. "I can't imagine anything finding you at all appetizing."

"Oh, Kaysa, that's gross!" Chitral complained. "Don't make me start imagining things like that!"

Kaysa just laughed and led them all into the forest.

"How can you see where you're going?" Sirius asked the third time he managed to trip over a root. "I can't see a thing."

"Then light your wand," came Kaysa's voice from somewhere up ahead. "Honestly!"

Annoyed and slightly embarrassed, Sirius pulled out his wand.

"_Lumos,"_ he muttered. So did several other voices. Glancing around Sirius saw that James and Peter had lit their wands too. He grinned at them, then looked around, taking in what he could now see. He'd been in the Forbidden Forest once before in his first year. He and James had decided to go exploring. They hadn't gotten very far before Hagrid, the groundskeeper, had found them and taken them back to the castle, scolding all the way. What Sirius remembered from that little excursion were trees so big you couldn't reach around them even with two people and the feeling of things watching. Here, it was different. This part of the forest didn't feel as old; though still quite tall, the trees were smaller and closer together, and there was more underbrush too. And Sirius didn't get the creeping feeling that something was watching him, either. Perhaps Kaysa had been right; maybe it was safe here.

"Well, don't just stand there staring. Let's go!"

Sirius looked up and saw Kaysa standing some ways ahead with Chitral. Sirius frowned; though she sounded more like her usual self, she still gave off a sense of — well, he wasn't sure, actually, but it was like she knew what she was doing. In the classroom, when she spoke it was always to ask questions, to try and understand something. Here she didn't seem the least bit confused or unsure and it made her seem older, somehow.

"Come on," she said again. "It's not far now."

They followed her. Sirius paid close attention to where he stepped; it would be totally embarrassing to trip and fall now. As Kaysa led them further in, he realized that she was following a path of sorts. It didn't look as though it was one made by humans though; it was too thin and unkempt for that. It looked more as though something walked here often enough to trample down any new growth and make a trail, but it had clearly never been cut back or anything. A game trail, perhaps? But then how had Kaysa and Chitral known about it? Then Sirius remembered Kaysa saying they had been out this way before. They must have found it some other time. Of course, that begged the question of how, since neither one of them seemed to need light…

"Ah, here we go," said Kaysa a minute later. Sirius looked around, confused. The forest didn't look any different to him. Then Kaysa and Chitral pushed open some bushes. Kaysa cast a glance back at them.

"Come on," she said, then vanished through the bushes into the darkness. Sirius exchanged a look with James. They didn't say anything, but they didn't need to; they weren't sure they trusted these girls, but neither of them was keen on the idea of being out here alone. They had no choice now but to follow. James in the lead, Sirius and his friends pushed their way through the bushes.

They stumbled out into a wide, oval-shaped clearing ringed by small trees and dense bushes. Ferns grew there too, in small, strangely fluffy-looking clumps all along one side. The floor of the glade was covered in thick, springy grass, broken only by a small stream running through the far end. At the very center the earth dipped slightly; here the ground was bare, sheltered, perhaps, by the medium-sized rock that stood there, or by the sapling tree that grew just beside the rock.

"Come," said Chitral, motioning them towards the center. Sirius began to follow, then stopped, looking around as he realized Kaysa wasn't there. Before he could ask where she'd got to, however, she reappeared, stepping through a tiny gap in the bushes and trees on the other side of the clearing, carrying an armload of twigs and branches of varying sizes. Relieved, and now curious, Sirius walked to the center of the clearing to join the others. As he drew nearer, he saw that a small fire pit had been dug in the bare ground and he understood why Kaysa was carrying wood.

So did Remus.

"Are we allowed to light a fire out here?" he asked skeptically.

Chitral gave him a slightly amused look.

"We're not even supposed to be out here, remember," she said. "I'd guess that that would mean doing things like making a fire and having a picnic are also out."

"Oh yeah," said Remus, making a face at his own absentmindedness. Chitral stifled a giggled. Sirius decided he liked her better for it; he had been beginning to think she didn't have a sense of humor.

Kaysa laid down her pile of wood and snatched a handful of dried leaves and grass from beside the rock. (Sirius wondered if it had been put there earlier for just this purpose.) She placed the handful in the fire pit, added a few small twigs, then began fishing about in her robes.

"I can get it, if you like," James offered, raising his wand.

"No thank you," said Kaysa. "It won't be necessary." From inside her robes, she pulled out a pair of stones and a small scrap of cloth.

"Flint and steel?" said Sirius. "Seriously? You're going to do it that way?"

Ignoring him, Kaysa placed some of her tinder in the cloth. She struck the flint against the steel, sending a shower of sparks onto the little bundle. After several strikes, the tinder had caught and she breathed carefully on it until it glowed at the center. Then she placed it in the pit with the rest of the mast and blew gently. The flame caught and held. Quickly, Kaysa began to feed it more twigs. Then she grinned up at Sirius, her features thrown into sharp relief by the small fire.

"Much more reliable this way," she said. "So long as you keep a bit of steel on you, you can always have fire. Besides, it's more fun."

Sirius grinned back and tried no to feel too pleased. Yes, she was smiling at him, but he could tell it was only because she was pleased to have surprised him rather than because of anything he'd said or done.

"Cool," said James, dropping down across from her. "Where'd you learn?"

"Home," she answered casually. "My people greatly value their woodscraft." She fed the fire a few more twigs and then some small branches. "So, how 'bout that food? What'd you guys get?"

"Just some pasties and some chocolate éclairs and a couple of butterbeers," said James, as Sirius and the others joined him and Kaysa around the fire. "It wasn't like we were exactly planning a feast, you know."

"That's fine," Kaysa told him. She pulled out her wand. _"Accio,"_ she said, pointing. Two pasties and a butterbeer flew to her across the flames from James's lap. She handed one of the pasties to Chitral.

"Hey!" James protested. "That's mine! We only brought four." He meant the butterbeer.

"You owe me," said Kaysa, removing the cap and taking a swig.

"She has a point," said Remus, grimacing slightly. "We'd be in detention now if they hadn't covered for us. Here," he added to Chitral, who sat between him and Kaysa, offering her his own butterbeer. Chitral, munching on the pasty Kaysa had handed her, smiled at him and took a sip. Then she handed it back.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem," mumbled Remus, looking self-conscious. Sirius wondered if he should offer to share with James, but something about the way Kaysa had taken only from him made Sirius think that maybe she had been sending some kind of message or making some kind of statement. So instead, he just set his open bottle between them; if James wanted some he could just take it.

"So," said Kaysa, swallowing a mouthful of pasty, "how'd you do it?"

"Oo whah?" asked James with his own mouth full.

"The thing with the jack-o-lanterns," said Kaysa. "I know that was you. What I don't know is how."

"What makes you so sure it was us?" James wanted to know. "McGonagall let us go."

"HA!" Kaysa laughed. "Like that means anything! Anyway, we heard you. When we were all carving the things. That _is_ where you got the idea, isn't it?" she added, looking around at them. "From the little first years play-fighting with them?"

"Yeah," said Sirius, staring at her. "How'd you know?"

"I just said. We heard you. I mean, you didn't say outright, but after what happened, well, it wasn't exactly difficult to put together, was it?"

"Guess not," Sirius admitted wryly.

"So, again, how'd you do it?"

"It's kind of complicated," James hedged.

Kaysa snorted.

"_You_ managed it," she said. "How complicated can it be?"

James glowered at her.

"It was simple spells, mostly," he said angrily. "But we had to layer them properly. That was the complicated part. We had to make sure the didn't interfere with each other."

"Or that they interfered with each other the right way," Remus put in. He didn't look as bothered by the insult as James did.

Kaysa and Chitral stared at him, then, as one, they cocked their heads in confusion.

"What?"

"When you mix spells together, it can change the what they do depending on how they combine," Remus explained. "So when you're trying for something that doesn't already have its own spell, sometimes an effect you need can only be achieved by combining other spells."

Kasya sat back, an odd expression on her face. Then she said, "I think that might have been the best explanation for mixed magics I've heard all year. And I've a lot of questions."

Remus blushed scarlet and looked at his lap. James grinned.

"See why we keep him around?" he said. "He's damn brilliant."

"Shut up," Remus told him. "I am not. Anyway, you and Sirius both do better than me."

"Ooh! Modesty," said Kaysa blinking. "How refreshing. But he's right," she nodded at James. "There's a difference between raw talent and actual intellect."

Remus turned, if possible, even redder.

"Kaysa, stop it!" Chitral scolded her cousin. "Honestly, you're so embarrassing. She _is_ right, though," she added, turning to Remus. Remus looked at her; Chitral grinned at him. Remus glowered and made a rude gesture. Kaysa and Chitral burst out laughing.

"Well met!" said Kaysa, leaning across Chitral to slap Remus heartily on the shoulder. "Well met indeed!"

Remus eyed them uncertainly, but a small smile turned the corners of his mouth up. Kaysa grinned, wolfed the rest of her pasty and got to her feet. From a pocket in her robe, she pulled a small tape player and a cassette. She placed the contraption on the rock, inserted the tape and hit 'play.' Light, almost bouncy music rang out into the clearing. It was full of violins, flutes, and drums.

"What's that for?" Sirius asked, watching as Kaysa tied a thin rope around her robes at the waist; it looked almost like a dress tied like that. Beside her, Chitral was doing the same thing.

"For dancing," said Kaysa. "For All Souls Night. It's very traditional," she added, twirling experimentally and adjusting her tied robes so they wouldn't tangle.

"You know Irish dances?" That seemed odd to Sirius; just a month ago it seemed that they barely knew English.

"Of course not," said Kaysa looking startled at the notion. "But it's dance music. It'll tell us what to do."

"At least," added Chitral, "that's what Takam, our old dance master, used to say. I'm not sure we're that good yet, though."

"Oh, who cares," said Kaysa. "We'll just keep it simple then. Look, see?" She did a couple of steps. "You can waltz to this. Sort of, anyway."

Chitral half-shrugged, half-nodded. Kaysa smiled evilly. She turned to face Sirius and the others.

"Right," she said. "Who wants to dance?"

"What?" James sputtered, staring up at her. "We don't dance!"

"We don't know how," Peter added.

"It's easy," Kaysa said. "You just sort of hop in time."

Sirius felt torn. He knew how to dance some from his forced lessons over the summer. It had been kind of fun. And now, if he told them all he knew how, he might get to dance with Kaysa, an idea that both thrilled and terrified him. On the other hand, he doubted if his friends — well, James, mostly — would ever let him live it down.

"Come on, Potter," said Kaysa. "You still owe me for saving your ass. Let's see what you can do."

James grimaced and stood up. Sirius deflated, his chance gone; he should have said something. Then he suddenly wondered why Kaysa had asked James. Did she like him? She certainly seemed to talk to him the most. Then he saw the look in the girl's eye; Kaysa wasn't inviting James to dance, she was challenging him. James seemed to know it too; he didn't look happy about dancing but he stepped toward her with a sort of grim determination. Kaysa took his hands and pulled him into a fast-paced but simple sort of dance, skipping and whirling about the glade. Chitral put her hands on her hips.

"Well," she said. "Any volunteers, or do I just commandeer one of you?"

"I — I'll do it," Remus offered, getting to his feet. "I'm warning you though, I haven't got a clue what to do."

"That's alright," said Chitral, holding out her hands. "Just follow my lead."

Sirius leaned back on his hands and watched as Chitral and Remus whirled away to join Kaysa and James. Neither of his friends was very good; he could hear both girls calling out instructions. Still, no one was falling down, that was something.

"It does sort of look like fun, doesn't it," said Peter, placing a few more branches on the fire and sliding over to sit next to Sirius. Sirius looked over at Peter and smiled.

"Yeah, it does," he agreed. Some things you just didn't have to worry about with Peter. Peter always followed his and James's lead, so just as long as James didn't start teasing him about it, neither would he.

The music changed and all four dancers came back to the fire. Kaysa dropped down and took a long drink of butterbeer. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were bright. Sirius tried not to stare at her, but it was hard; she looked so…so alive.

"There now," she said to James who sat panting on the rock. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"I suppose," he said. "But you go too fast."

"Ha! You're just not in shape," Kaysa retorted, amused.

"Can I try?" asked Peter, looking back and forth between the two girls. "That looks like fun."

Chitral was taking a sip of Remus's butterbeer again, but she nodded.

"Sure," she said smiling at him and passing the bottle back to Remus. "Come on." A moment later she discovered Peter's two left feet and slowed down, explaining to him what he was supposed to do.

Kaysa leaned over and snagged a chocolate éclair from Sirius's lap. She bit into it, then saw Sirius watching her and grinned.

"You're next, laddybuck," she said, pointing at him with the éclair. "Just as soon as I finish this."

Sirius blinked at the strange nickname, then shrugged at her, hoping he didn't look as excited or as nervous as he felt. Then he thought he heard a snigger. Looking around, he saw James, still sat on the rock, watching him. When their eyes met, James smirked and waggled his eyebrows. Sirius shot him a dirty look.

"Better, Pettigrew," Kaysa called to Peter. "But try not to look at the ground so much, or that's where you'll go."

"But I'll fall if I don't look down!" Peter called back. "Or step in her feet."

"Let me worry about my feet," Chitral assured him. "And try not to worry too much about your own. Just feel for the music. Too much thinking messes you up."

As Peter struggled to obey, James said, "That makes no sense."

"Sure it does," said Kaysa around a mouthful of éclair. "It's like when you say a word too many times and it starts sounding weird. When you think too much about something, you tend to get in your own way. Especially physical stuff like this; your body knows what it's doing, you just need to trust it."

James frowned, considering this. Kaysa ate the last bit of her éclair, washed it down with a swallow of butterbeer, then stood and held out a hand to Sirius.

"Come on," she said. "And try not to step on me."

"I won't," said Sirius, pleased to hear that his voice at least sounded calm. As he stepped forward, calm was the last thing he felt. His insides seemed to be doing a little dance of their own. He swallowed and, trying not to think too much about what he was doing, took one of Kaysa's hands in his, put his other on her waist and pulled her to him, not so close that they touched, but close enough that they didn't have to reach for each other. Kaysa placed her hand on his shoulder, and stepped out lightly.

Sirius followed. The music was slower now, a simple waltz. Kaysa stepped and he followed, falling into rhythm with her. Kaysa looked at him and raised her eyebrows, surprised to find that he knew what he was doing. Then she grinned at him. Sirius's stomach flipped and he started to grin back, then he saw the glint in her eyes and recognized the challenge there. She was going to test him.

She changed the pattern of their steps, switching from a simple waltz to a slightly more complex one. Sirius fumbled for a moment, then found the rhythm again. Kaysa nodded to him, then changed again. This time, he was paying better attention; keeping out of her way he watched her move and recognized a cross-step. He sent a silent thanks to his dance teacher, who had loved the cross-step, and stepped in time with Kaysa once more.

The cross-step, his teacher had liked to say, was a wonderful dance; it opened the very traditional waltz to some very untraditional steps. Sirius had often wondered if his mother actually knew the dance teacher at all, because Mrs. Black was so far gone into tradition that Sirius was pretty sure she'd have been happy living in the Middle Ages. His dance instructor, on the other hand, had pronounced the word 'traditional' like something distasteful. 'Tradition' meant not having any fun, she had said. For this reason, she had drilled him on the cross-step over and over. Now he was very glad.

Suddenly deciding that it wasn't fair for Kaysa to play this game all herself, he took the lead, pulling her around in a series of steps that took them in a figure-eight pattern around the clearing. He saw her eyes widen in shock, but she kept up perfectly. He tried another pattern, taking them in several sweeping half-loops. Kaysa was grinning now; she followed him through the loops, then took back the lead, whirling them straight across the floor of the glade, spinning hard and fast, their feet close together. Sirius kept up with her, but only just. It was a more advanced move and he'd only started to learn it a few weeks before the summer had ended. Kaysa didn't seem to have noticed though. He could almost feel her thinking as her muscles bunched beneath his hand.

"Don't," he cautioned her. "I can't do anything fancy. Like as not, I'd drop you."

She sighed, then shrugged and led him in one more complicated pattern to close the dance. The music stopped. So did they. Applause broke out. Sirius looked around; Chitral, Remus and Peter were clapping. James's eyebrows were so high they had vanished under his untidy mop of black hair. He turned back to Kaysa; she was looking at him with new respect in her eyes. Apparently in her books, knowing how to dance counted for something. He grinned sardonically at her and bowed theatrically. She giggled. They returned to the fireside and the others. Sirius suspected he was grinning like an idiot, but he didn't really care. He had impressed Kaysa and he'd made her laugh, all without her looking at him like he was a prat even once.

As he sat down, he realized how out of breath he was. He looked around for his butterbeer.

"Sorry, mate," said James, holding up the empty bottle. "I'm afraid I finished it."

"Here," said Kaysa, offering her own. Sirius hesitated.

"You sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, don't worry about me," she said. "I'm in better shape than any of you."

"Thanks," Sirius said, taking the bottle and gulping thirstily. Kaysa smiled and put another branch on their fire.

"Where'd you learn to dance?" Chitral wanted to know.

"Yeah, and when?" James added. Sirius grimaced.

"This summer," he said. "My mum made me."

James, Remus, and Peter all nodded. Kaysa and Chitral just looked puzzled.

"Really?" said Kaysa. "I mean, I'm glad, but why?"

"My mum's sort of big on tradition," he said, trying to think how best to explain things. "My family's old, real old. Mum's got this strange notion that that means we've all got to be proper ladies and gentlemen, or something." That was glossing over a whole lot, but it would do for now.

"Sounds like your mum and Chi's da would get along," said Kaysa wryly. "He's pretty traditional."

"No he wouldn't," said Chitral, laughing. "She's an outsider."

"Outsider?" Remus echoed.

"Our community is sort of close," said Kaysa, making a face. "Anyway, I don't think you need to worry," she told Sirius. "I doubt anyone would ever mistake you for a gentleman."

"Good," said Sirius, leaning back and taking another sip of butterbeer. He wasn't sure she'd meant it as a compliment, but he took it as one. To his surprise, Kaysa grinned back at him. Then she turned to James.

"Speaking of traditions, however," she said, "you still owe me a duel."

"What?" said James.

"Kaysa," said Chitral warningly. "I thought you said you wouldn't do it this way."

"I got bored," said Kaysa. "I changed my mind."

"Excuse me," James interrupted them. "What are you talking about? What duel?"

"From Hogsmeade," said Kaysa. "Look, this has been fun. I like you lot, I think. But some things need to be dealt with. You insulted my friend and my gender and I want satisfaction from you, James Potter."

"I told you I won't play this game," said James. "Not when it's rigged."

"Hold on a moment, James," said Sirius. He'd never thought all that stuff he'd learned from his family would come in handy, but now it did. "As the one challenged, you get to set the time, place, and the manner of the duel. It's the rules."

James blinked at him, startled, but Remus said, "He's right, actually." Kaysa and Chitral nodded.

"You also get to set the stakes," said Sirius. James was grinning now.

"Do I?" he said. "Okay, then." He thought for a moment then said, "How 'bout Saturday night. Ten o'clock. We can use that spare classroom Neal had us carve pumpkins in."

"And the stakes?" Kaysa prompted.

"I don't know, five galleons?" said James shrugging.

"What do I want with your money?" asked the girl drily.

"Alright, something else then, er —"

"Answers," said Remus quietly, his eyes fixed on Kaysa. "Loser answers three questions truthfully."

Kaysa's eyes narrowed. Chitral's expression went carefully blank. They exchanged a look.

"Questions within reason," said Kaysa, looking hard at Remus.

"Of course," Remus agreed.

Kaysa looked at James, who nodded.

"Very well, then," said Kaysa, holding out her hand to James. "Ten o'clock, Saturday night."

"Wands only," said James firmly. Kaysa inclined her head. They shook hands. Then Kaysa checked her watch.

"Nearly two in the morning," she said. "Time to head back."

"Two?" said Remus. "When did that happen?"

"Not too long ago," said Kaysa, her lips twitching. She pulled out her wand, muttered a spell and the fire went out. The glade was plunged into an eerie darkness, the only light provided by the stars and the tiny sliver of moon in the sky. It was enough to see movement by, but not much else. Sirius, James, and Remus all lit their wands. Peter, looking sleepy, stumbled over and grabbed hold of Remus's sleeve. Kaysa and Chitral were picking up the butterbeer bottles and James grabbed his Invisibility Cloak. Then they pushed their way back through the dense bushes and headed back to the castle, Kaysa in the lead, and Chitral bringing up the rear.

They had just reached the edge of the forest when Kaysa pulled up sharply.

"What?" James wanted to know. "Look, the castle's right —"

"Shh!" Kaysa hissed. "Listen."

They listened. Sirius strained his ears, there; a faint, high-pitched sound, a little like crying.

"Kaysa, what —" Chitral began, but Kaysa put a finger to her lips and tapped her ear. Chitral cocked her head and frowned. "What is that?"

"I don't know," Kaysa replied. She had her eyes closed and was turning her head this way and that, trying to pinpoint the sound.

"Maybe we should get out of here," Remus suggested. "What if it's dangerous?"

"Doesn't sound dangerous," said Kaysa, moving slowly off to their right. "Here, one of you bring a light over."

James and Sirius both brought their wands over.

"Good," she said. "Keep to either side of me and light the ground in front. Look for anything that moves. And watch where you step."

They nodded and followed her slowly through the sparse trees. Sirius watched his side carefully, alert for anything, but it was James who spotted it.

"There," he said, pointing to a small clump of grass and ferns growing out of an old stump. Kaysa and Sirius looked, then they saw it; the tiniest hint of movement from the ferns. The soft crying came again. Kaysa stepped forward and crouched down by the stump. Sirius and James joined her and by the wandlight they could see that the center of the stump was hollow. Kaysa pushed the ferns gently aside. There, in the mossy dip, was a tiny ball of fluff, hardly any bigger than Sirius's fist. As Kaysa pushed the ferns back, it raised a tiny head, blinked dark eyes at them and cried piteously.

"Oh," Kaysa breathed. "Poor little mite." She reached down and carefully scooped up the tiny thing.

"What is it?" asked Sirius.

"It looks like a fox kit," said Kaysa, cradling the baby against her chest.

"Kays? You find it?" Chitral called softly.

"Yes," Kaysa said standing up and moving to rejoin them. Sirius and James followed her. "Here, look." Kaysa showed them her handful of kit.

"Poor little thing," said Chitral, her jade green eyes soft.

"Can I touch him?" asked Peter.

"Is it a him?" asked Remus.

"I think so," said Kaysa, who was carefully inspecting the kit. "It's a little hard to tell when they're so young and fluffy, though. And yes, you can touch him, but gently. One at a time!" she added sharply as all four boys reached out hands. "We don't want to overwhelm him."

James and Sirius pulled their hands back. Remus left his out, but waited for Peter to go first.

"He's so soft," Peter whispered, stroking the kit's fur. He was right; when it was Sirius's turn to touch the kit, its fluffy fur was as soft as down beneath his fingers.

"What'll you do with him?" he asked Kaysa.

"Keep him, of course," said the girl. "He'd die out here on his own." Then she frowned and looked closer at the little scrap of fur she held. Gently, she shifted her grip on him til she could use one hand to uncurl the little body, then her fingers delicately grasped and pulled away a tuft of fur from the kit's rear.

Sirius stared. The kit had two tails.

"Are you sure it's a fox?" asked Remus, raising an eyebrow.

"Weird," said Kaysa, fingering the two tails. Then she released them and the kit curled up again, whimpering. "No, I'm not sure. But, except for the tails, it looks like a fox kit."

She frowned for a second.

"I'll take him Professor Kettleburn tomorrow," she decided. "Maybe he'll know what he is. Even if not, he can help me with feeding him. I don't know what you give baby foxes."

"Kaysa, he'll need feeding every few hours at the least," said Chitral. "Are you sure you can manage him and classes?"

"I'll have to, won't I?" said Kaysa. She pulled another wad of cloth from inside her robes and wrapped the little fox — or whatever it was — in it so he wouldn't get too cold. Then she said, "Come on," and hurried off towards the castle, Sirius and the others trailing in her wake.

They made their way back to Gryffindor Tower as quickly and as quietly as they could, Sirius and his group under James Invisibility Cloak again, and Kaysa and Chitral flitting soundlessly through the shadows. They met no one and the Fat Lady seemed too tired to scold them for being up and about so late.

"G'night," Sirius called as he and the others stumbled off to bed.

"Night," said Chitral. Kaysa just waved vaguely, her attention still on the kit in her arms. Sirius rolled his eyes — girls and cute fuzzy things! — and followed James up the stairs.

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

_**(Chitral)**_

"Well, that was interesting," said Chitral, settling down by the fire in the common room with Kaysa.

"Mm," said her cousin, her focus on the fox kit in her arms as she coaxed him into drinking from the little eyedropper of milk. They didn't know what to give foxes, but at this age, and with the little mite so hungry, Kaysa had reckoned that most any kind of milk would do. The eyedropper and the formula were left over from the summer when Kaysa had found an abandoned kitten.

Chitral knew better than to argue with Kaysa about things like this; Kaysa could never just let something so fragile die. Neither could Chitral, for that matter, though she was still exasperated with her cousin for refusing to just give the little fox to their Care of Magical Creatures professor. She also knew better than to worry about how Kaysa would explain the kit to their teachers the next morning. Kaysa was a good liar when she needed to be. Or wanted to be. Sadly, the two did not always go together.

"So," she said instead, "what about that duel? You can't afford to lose now. How are you going to pull that off?"

"Oh, don't worry so much," said Kaysa, tickling the baby's tiny tufted ears. "Even if we lose, I did say questions within reason. If they ask stuff that I can't answer, then I can't answer."

"I still don't like it," Chitral grumbled. "He's too sharp, that one. If we're not careful around him, he'll figure it out." She was thinking of Remus, of the quick intelligence in his eyes, and of the look on his face when he'd said the stakes for the duel should be answers. He, at least, already suspected something.

"How?" said Kaysa laughing. "It's not like he can just go and look it up in a book or something. They've never even heard of our people."

"Maybe not," said Chitral, "But he'd still know something was up. And he won't let it go. You're an idiot if you can't see that."

"Of course I can see it," said Kaysa quietly, looking right at her. "And I don't think there's anything we can do about it. He knows we're hiding something — well, it's not really surprising, I guess. Like knows like best, after all. Maybe if we let him ask his questions, and are careful enough about our answers, maybe we can shake him, get that rampant curiosity under control."

"You mean, tell him some secrets and maybe he'll stop?" said Chitral skeptically.

"If we do it right," said Kaysa. "If he thinks he's pulled _the_ secret from us, then we shouldn't have any more trouble."

"And if we don't do it right?" Chitral asked. Getting it wrong seemed only too probably to her. Kaysa shrugged.

"We'll think of something," she said. She refilled the eyedropper and put the end back in the kit's mouth. Chitral sighed and shook her head. Sometimes, she really had no idea why she followed this crazy girl. Put it down to Family.

"Whatcha gonna call him?" she asked finally.

Kaysa looked down at the little kit suckling in her arms and smiled.

"Cahiran," she said softly. "'Little warrior.'"

* * *

A/N: yeah, i know, this last bit was in Chitral's POV when usually it's Kaysa's. but as this goes on, i'm going to need more and more different POV's. snape and peter, at least, and probably lily too. maybe the rest of the Marauders... we'll see. anyway, i'll try to be organized about it, i promise. hope you enjoyed!

~SilverKit'sFire


	8. Duel

disclaimer: HP and it's characters are not mine, just Kaysa, Chitral, and a few others out of necessity (well, you can't just have a school of thirteen students, now, can you?)

A/N: here's the next chapter! enjoy! again, feel free to ask questions, give feed back, anything ^_^

* * *

_**Duel**_

"You have to win, you know."

Sirius rolled his eyes. They were in the library for morning break catching up on some homework before Care of Magical Creatures. Sirius was trying to make a start on the essay Professor Flitwick had assigned them that morning, but he was finding it difficult to concentrate; Remus just wouldn't let it go.

"You ought to get some practice in," the boy was saying, "maybe look for some new spells… I mean, this is the library, I bet we could find loads of —"

"Would you just relax already?" James interrupted him exasperatedly. "It's just a duel! Anyway, she said herself she doesn't know much about dueling. I'll be fine."

"That was two weeks ago," said Remus, meaning the Hogsmeade weekend when Kaysa had made her original challenge. "For all we know, she's been getting someone to teach her since then."

"Oh, so what?" said James. "It's just a duel. What are you so worked up about?"

Remus looked around at all of them, a strange look on his face.

"Don't you want to know?" he asked.

"Know what?" said Sirius, trading blank looks with James and Peter.

"About them!" Remus exclaimed. "About those girls! They're strange — there's something wrong about them."

"What do you mean?" said Sirius before he could stop himself. "There's nothing wrong with them."

James sniggered but Remus was shaking his head.

"I said 'wrong _about_ them' not 'wrong _with_ them,'" he said. "I just meant there's something off . . . something they're keeping a secret."

"Aah," said James, "I see. You don't care about my reputation, you just want a chance to ask questions."

"Your reputation is entirely your business," Remus told him flatly. "But if you win, they have to answer three questions truthfully. I want to know what —" he gestured vaguely with a hand, "— you know, what's really up with them."

It wasn't a very elegant way of putting it, but Sirius did know what he meant. However much he admired Kaysa, there was no denying that she and her cousin were odd. It wasn't blatantly obvious, or anything, but if you were paying attention you started to notice things, little things, which alone might not have meant anything but which all together hinted at something Sirius couldn't even begin to fathom. It was like a riddle; the answer, once pointed out to you, was really quite simple, but until someone did, you just couldn't quite get your brain around it because it would mean coming at something so crookedly. The answer, the explanation, was there, he was sure of it. He just couldn't see it.

He sighed.

"Look," he said to James. "Maybe he's got a point. And, even if you turn out not to need it for this one, wouldn't it be fun to have some new tricks to pull on old Snivellus?" He was rather proud of this little bit of inspiration; James would do just about anything if it meant getting yet another one up on Snape. True to form, James's eyes lit up.

"Yeah, alright," he said, sounding far more enthusiastic now. "But not now; I've got to finish this Potions essay."

Remus flashed Sirius a grateful look across the table. Sirius gave him a shrug and a quick smile in return, then turned back to his homework. It was much easier to concentrate now, and by the time the bell rang to signal the end of break he was nearly halfway done. Rolling up his parchment and shoving it into his bag, he stood and walked with his friends down the stairs to the first floor where their Care of Magical Creatures class was held.

Kaysa and Chitral were already there when they entered, sitting at a table with Lily and Heather. James grinned slightly evilly and led Sirius and the others to a table right next to them. As the rest of the class filed in, Lily looked sidelong at them. James grinned broadly at her and she wrinkled her nose and looked away. Sirius considered trying to catch Kaysa's eye, but he wasn't sure how she would react. Things had seemed fairly friendly between their two groups last night, but neither Kaysa nor her cousin had so much as spared any of them a look all morning. Then Professor Kettleburn walked in.

"Right," he said briskly, marching to the front of the room, "show of hands; who did their homework? Ah, most of you, I see. Good. Now, hold it up, please. _Accio!"_

Homework flew to him from every corner of the room and landed neatly on his desk in a pile.

"Excellent," said Professor Kettleburn. "Now, anyone who hasn't finished it yet will have till the end of the day to complete it and get it to me. Anyone who fails to do so will be assigned a make-up essay twice the original length."

The class groaned. Sirius grinned. Professor Kettleburn was one of the strangest teachers he'd ever had. Short and burly, with curly but thinning orangey-red hair and bright blue eyes, you expected the accent. The man practically had 'Scotland' written on his face. What you didn't expect was how fast he was; as if his enthusiasm wouldn't allow him to slow down and take a breath. He was already missing three fingers (two on his left hand and one on his right) and (he claimed) several toes as well, and fully expected to lose a few more, but that hadn't stopped him working with the magical creatures he clearly loved. Sirius loved his classes; his fascination with and enthusiasm for the subject was catching, making sure that classes were never dull. He also never seemed to get angry with students and didn't believe in detentions. Detention, he said, didn't teach a person anything; he'd far rather his students did something productive with their time. Oddly, in spite of this — or, perhaps because of it — almost no one ever misbehaved in his classes, or failed to do their work. It was damn magic!

"Right then," said Kettleburn, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet, "today we're starting —" He stopped. Sirius looked around to see what had distracted him. Kaysa had her hand in the air.

"Excuse me," she said, "I'm sorry. I wouldn't interrupt, except, well, it's sort of urgent."

"Go on," said Professor Kettleburn sounding more curious than anything else.

"It's," Kaysa began, then stopped and pursed her lips. "It's . . . well, actually I don't really know what it is — what he is. But he's just a baby, see." She pulled her hands out of her lap and placed the little, two-tailed fox kit from the night before on her desk. "I was hoping you could tell me how to care for him. And maybe what he is. I thought he was a fox kit, but, well, you'll see."

Lily and Heather both squealed when Kaysa set the little fluffball on the desk and immediately tried to pet him. Kaysa winced and opened her mouth, but Professor Kettleburn got there first.

"Yes, yes," he said, hurrying over and picking up the kit. "Very cute, but don't shriek like that. I imagine it hurts his ears worse than mine."

Rebuked, the girls pulled their hands back looking disappointed.

"Now, let's see here." He inspected the small creature in his hand. "What are you, laddie?"

"It is male, then?" said Kaysa, watching him. "I did look but it's a little hard to tell with all the baby fuzz."

"Oh, yes," said Kettleburn distractedly as he gently prized open the kit's jaws and peered inside. "Hmm . . . milk teeth, so still quite young, but the eyes are open…" he mused letting go of the kit's mouth. It snapped at him. Easily evading the bite, Professor Ketteburn deftly turned the kit in his hands to look at its rear. He had to uncurl the two tails to see them, and Sirius saw his eyes widen slightly as he did so. Then the professor turned a sharp eye on Kaysa.

"And where did you come by this little fellow, I wonder," he said. Sirius felt James tense beside him; he needn't have worried, however.

"I was out walking after dinner last night," Kaysa lied smoothly. "I probably wouldn't have found him, but he was hungry and crying."

"Walking where?" Kettleburn pressed.

"Around the lake," came the calm reply. Sirius was impressed; technically, it wasn't even really a lie. Professor Kettleburn regarded her suspiciously for a moment, but it wasn't really in his nature to care what his students got up to so long as they it was informative and safe (well, mostly, anyway).

"Well, you are quite fortunate, Mistress Kaysa," he said finally, holding the kit out to her, which yipped and squirmed in his hand, trying to get back to the girl. Kaysa took hold of him quick before the little thing could fall. "That there is a kitsune."

"A what?" said Kaysa, looking up at the teacher blankly.

"A kitsune. The name originates from old Japanese folklore. Kitsune are to foxes what kneazles are to cats," Professor Kettleburn explained, now speaking to the class at large. "They are clever and trainable and, though fairly hard to get your hands on, tending to be quite shy of humans, they are incredibly loyal. Now, caring for a young kitsu—"

"Sir," Chitral suddenly broke in, "please, sir, couldn't you take the care of this one? It'll be too much for us."

"I said I'll manage!" Kaysa snapped at her. Then she looked at Professor Kettleburn. "Er, no offense meant, sir."

"None taken," said Kettleburn lightly. Turning to Chitral he said seriously, "I suppose I could try to take him, but, your cousin's attachment aside, I doubt he'd stay with me."

"Why not?" Chitral asked.

"You said he was hungry when you found him?" Kaysa nodded confirmation and he continued, "Then I'd also assume you fed him?"

"Of course," said Kaysa indignantly.

"Then he will have attached himself to you," said the professor. "I suspected as much when he tried to bite me. They're usually more docile at that age."

Chitral groaned. Kaysa just smiled and cuddled the kit close to her chest.

"Well," said Professor Kettleburn, looking around, "I guess we'd better put off knarls for later. Right: Kitsune," and, recognizing the sound of him starting a lecture, the class pulled out quills and parchment to take notes on kitsune with.

There was a lot to know about kitsune, it turned out. They could have anything from one to nine tails, tended to be lighter in color than normal foxes — often the more tails a kitsune had, the lighter its fur was — and had exceptionally good hearing. They were also highly intelligent, capable of understanding human language and of problem-solving, at least to a point. Less was know about their magical properties since they were so hard to find and study, but it was suspected that they could become, if not invisible, then at least unnoticeable somehow. Sirius supposed that made sense; it would certainly explain why so few people ever saw them.

The last ten minutes of class were given over to a brief lesson on how to care for young kitsune while everyone was allowed to come forward one at a time and get a good look at the kit.

"What's his name?" Sirius asked when it was his turn. He'd already seen the kit, but it had been dark then; now he could see the white tufts on each tail and the strange markings on its fur; the ears and paws were solid black while the rest of the body was dark brown with streaks of black running through it.

"That's an odd color," he commented.

"It's called brindle," Kaysa told him. "And his name's Cahiran."

"Ah, the little warrior," said Professor Kettleburn, who had clearly overheard. "I didn't know you knew Gaelic." He sounded approving.

"I don't, sir," said Kaysa, almost apologetically, "not really. I've just been reading some of the legends and things and I've taken to looking up some of the names to see what they meant, is all. Sorry."

"Whatever for?" exclaimed Professor Kettleburn, looking startled. "It's wonderful to see such curiosity in my pupils."

"Why do you know Gaelic, sir?" asked Cameron Walsh. "You're Scottish, not Irish."

"True," Kettleburn told the boy, "but our two peoples share a heritage, after all. And I like knowing things."

Cam blinked then frowned, considering this.

"Now," said Professor Kettleburn, addressing Kaysa directly, "you'll need to feed him often at first — every three to four hours I'd say. Milk is good, I've got a formula you can use, but he'll need more than that. Foxes are weaned when they open their eyes. Try giving him small pieces of meat. Raw or cooked is fine, but not too heavily seasoned. You can also try bits of egg. When he gets older you can give him small amounts of fruit as well."

Kaysa listened carefully, nodding every now and then. The rest of the class, realizing they had effectively been dismissed, packed up and left for lunch.

"A kitsune," said James to Sirius and the others as they made their way to the Great Hall. "Who'd've thought?"

"Yeah," said Sirius dropping into a seat at the Gryffindor table and reaching for food. "Too bad we didn't find more though, I wouldn't mind having one."

"You're joking, right?" said Chitral, sliding in beside Peter on the opposite side of the table. "Did you know that at this age they don't know how to go to the bathroom by themselves? You have to rub their rears with a wet tissue to get them to go. That's were Kaysa is right now."

Sirius grimaced; he hadn't known that.

"Lucky her," he said dryly. "Why aren't you with Lily?"

Chitral raised an eyebrow at him.

"I suppose I wanted a change," she said coolly. "I can leave, though, if you'd like."

"No, it's fine," said Sirius hurriedly. If Chitral was sitting with them, maybe Kaysa would too. "I was just surprised, that's all."

Chitral grinned at him and began loading her plate. Sirius watched, wondering if she was being ambitious or was just really hungry. Either way, she had taken more food than anyone but Peter. After a minute or so, Kaysa joined them, taking a seat next to James.

"What?" she demanded as the boys all stared; she too was piling her plate high. "I'm hungry!"

"I guess so," said James, sounding impressed.

"Where's the baby?" Chitral asked.

"Asleep in my hood," said Kaysa, jerking a thumb at the back of her robes.

"He must be exhausted to fall asleep there," Sirius commented, thinking about how much motion that would require sleeping through.

"And so he should be," said Kaysa, ladling liberal amounts of gravy onto her mashed potatoes. "He's had quite the exciting morning."

"I don't know how no one noticed him in Herbology," said Chitral, swallowing a mouthful of food.

"I never thought I'd be thankful for those unruly Tentacula of Professor Sprout's," said Kaysa, "but I sure was today. They kept everyone else busy and him quiet."

"Really?" said Sirius curiously. "I'd have thought he'd have wanted to chase them."

"Maybe when he's older," said Kaysa, "but for now he's still too young to be that adventurous."

"I've read about kitsune," said Remus suddenly. "Folklore says they're shapeshifters."

"Yeah, well, folklore says witches are evil and all own black cats, too," said Kaysa.

"I didn't say I believed it," said Remus, "I just wonder where the legends come from, that's all."

"Legends come from all over," said Kaysa shrugging. "And they rarely make sense. This one probably got blended with western trickster mythology or something."

"Or someone was just really hairy and totally crazy," said Chitral with a laugh. "Anyway, I thought boggarts were the only real shapeshifters."

"What about werewolves and animagi?" asked Remus; his voice was mild but Sirius could see a flicker of worry in his friend's eyes at bringing up werewolves, a topic he usually avoided even within their group.

"I mean ones with an innate and controllable ability," said Chitral.

"Innate?" echoed Peter, confused.

"It means to be born with something," Kaysa explained. "A natural ability, like."

"Whatever," said James. He sounded impatient all of a sudden. "Ask one of the teachers. Look, I'm not complaining here, but I don't get it. Why are you hanging out with us if you want to fight me?"

Kaysa stared at him.

"I told you," she said, "I like you lot well enough. Some things just need to be dealt with, that's all."

"What does that even mean?"

"That you need a lesson in manners."

"I have parents for that," said James rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, but they're not here, are they?" retorted Kaysa. "Anyway, I doubt they're aware of what all you get up to here."

James opened his mouth to reply, then jumped slightly and yelped.

"Don't bother arguing with her," said Chitral. "If I can't make her see sense what makes you think you can?"

"That hurt!" James complained, reaching down to rub his shin where she must have kicked him.

"Good," said Kaysa reaching for a roast chicken. Sirius stared. Somehow, in the last ten minutes, she had cleared her plate.

"You're not still hungry?" he said, watching as she carved small slices of chicken breast and placed them on her plate.

"What? Oh, no. No, this is for Cahi." She began to cut up the slices of meat into even smaller pieces and Sirius realized that by 'Cahi' she must have meant the kitsune kit. She pulled out a small bag from inside her robes and placed the chopped up chicken in it, then she stood up and stretched.

"Right," she said, "Time to see about a basket or cage of some sort. There's no way I'm taking the little guy to Potions — not till he's learned the word 'no' anyway. Chi, come help. I think this might turn out to be a two-person job."

Chitral sighed patiently and polished off the last of her own meal before standing.

"I hate Potions," she complained as she got to her feet. "A double period with the Slytherins and Lily always ends up talking to that twitchy boy."

"What, you mean old Snivellus?" said James, grinning up at her.

"Is that what you call him?" asked Chitral, giggling. "I like it."

"I don't know," said Kaysa slowly, "I mean, she must be friends with him for some reason."

"Well, if you can spot it, then that's more than any of us can manage," James told her. "He's an odd one; way into the Dark Arts."

"Still," said Kaysa, shrugging. "Anyway, we'll see you in class. Come on, Chi, let's go."

"Wait!" Sirius called after them. "I'm confused; are we all friends now or what?"

Kaysa turned back to look at him, her emerald eyes playful, but also serious as they flicked from him to each of his friends in turn.

"Well, I guess that's up to you now, isn't it?" she said. Then she turned and left.

"She is so weird!" exclaimed James after a moment. "I honestly don't know what you see in her, mate."

Sirius shrugged helplessly at him; truth be told, he wasn't really sure himself.

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

"We missed you at lunch today," said Lily as Kaysa and Chitral set up their cauldrons at a table next to her and Heather. Her voice was light but Kaysa thought she detected a faint chilliness. She blinked, startled; she had thought it would be okay but maybe she'd been wrong. She was getting better at knowing the unspoken social rules here, but you could never tell.

"Sorry," she said, "I didn't know we had a standing arrangement."

"Oh, no, no we don't," said Lily, who knew Kaysa well enough by now to realize that she thought she'd made a social error. "It's not that, it's just —"

"Just what?" asked Kaysa when Lily paused. The other girl hesitated.

"What were you doing hanging with Potter's crowd?" asked Heather bluntly.

"Ah," said Kaysa, understanding dawning on her. "He owes me a duel. I wanted to make sure he wouldn't skip out on me." It wasn't precisely a lie, she told herself, not really.

"Besides, they're not all that bad," said Chitral fairly. Kaysa had to stifle a giggle; you'd never guess that, only days ago, Chitral had been trying to convince her to stay away from the boys.

"You're kidding, right?" said Heather. "They're a bunch of arrogant prats!"

"Well, they _are _thirteen year-old boys," Kaysa pointed out. "You can't possibly expect them to be perfect."

"No, I suppose not, but a little humility wouldn't kill them," said Lily.

"And I hope to teach them some," said Kaysa. She glanced around the room, but they'd come a bit early and Professor Slughorn wasn't there yet. Even so, she lowered her voice as she asked, "Can you teach me how to duel? I've only got until Saturday to learn."

"You were serious about that?" Lily hissed, her eyes widening. "Are you crazy? If the teachers catch you you'll be in so much trouble."

"I know that," said Kaysa, "but he said girls can't fight. I can't just let that go. Besides, it'd be worth it to knock him down a peg."

Lily bit her lip then finally, as the rest of the class started to trickle in, she said, "Alright, fine, I'll help. But if we get caught —"

"Let me worry about that," said Kaysa firmly; this was her endeavor after all, any trouble it caused should fall solely on her. Lily nodded then turned to the incoming students.

"Sev!" she called, waving over a pale Slytherin boy with greasy black hair and eyes so dark you couldn't. "Hey, Sev, come here."

"What?" he asked, rather shortly, eyeing Kaysa, Chitral, and Heather.

"I need to teach Kaysa how to duel," Lily explained, gesturing to Kaysa. She didn't seem at all put off by his tone. "Will you help? You know more about dueling than I do." The boy frowned at her.

"Why would I teach a Gryffindor to duel?"

"You taught me some," said Lily.

"That's different," the boy protested. "I trust you. Why do you need to teach her, anyway?"

"Because she—"

"Wait!" Kaysa interrupted. She had been worried about this since Lily had called him over. Severus Snape hated James Potter, everyone knew it; telling him that she wanted to know how to duel because she was going to duel with James felt wrong. Not that it wasn't true, exactly, but while she didn't feel any need to explain to Lily or Snape that she was actually starting to like James and his rowdy crew, she also didn't want Snape to teach her dueling because she'd let him believe she hated James too and wanted to cream him or something. It was too easy and it wasn't fair.

"Look, I just need to know the basics," she said, speaking directly to Snape. "If you don't feel comfortable teaching me, then you don't have to do it."

"Why do you want to know?" Snape repeated, his black eyes sharp with suspicion.

"Because I don't know how," said Kaysa carefully, looking straight back at him, "and I don't like being at a disadvantage."

Snape considered her for a moment.

"Just the basics?" he checked.

"Just the basics," said Kaysa levelly. "I doubt I'd be able to do anything more than that just now, anyway." This was not, strictly speaking, true; she was a good learner and tended to pick things up pretty quick (outside of Transfiguration, anyway), but still, she didn't think she'd be able to learn anything fancy by Saturday. And besides, people were always more willing to do things when you made it seem like they were doing you a favor. She might refuse to trick him into teaching her, but she wasn't beneath making him feel a bit better about it now that he'd basically agreed.

"Fine," said Snape. "I'll do it. Meet me in the library after class."

Kaysa hesitated.

"Wouldn't it be better to do this outside?" she suggested tentatively. She didn't want him to get angry and change his mind, but she couldn't help thinking of what Madame Pince, Hogwarts' remarkably crotchety librarian, would say if she caught them practicing dueling anywhere near her precious books. Actually, Kaysa liked books too, but Madame Pince was far more worrying.

"Of course," said Snape, sneering at her slightly. "But the grounds are too big to set a meeting point at. It'll be easier if we all just meet somewhere in the castle, and there's a book I need to check out."

"Oh," said Kaysa. "Alright."

"We'll be there," said Lily, smiling at him. "Thanks, Sev."

Snape nodded to her, then hauled his things away to sit with the Slytherins without a word.

"Well, he sure is friendly," said Chitral sarcastically. "I can't think how I could have not noticed before."

Heather sniggered but Lily frowned.

"Leave him alone," she said reproachfully. "He's my best friend. He's just not very good with people, that's all."

Heather pursed her lips but said nothing. Kaysa exchanged a glance with Chitral; neither one of them was buying that. Lily might think he was just bad with people, but that wasn't it. It was simply that the only person he really cared about being good with was Lily.

Still, Kaysa thought, as Professor Slughorn finally made an appearance, apologizing jovially for being late (he'd gotten held up chatting, what'd'ya know — as if anyone was surprised), he probably did know his stuff. She didn't have to like him any more than he did her to learn from him.

"Why didn't you tell him you're going to duel with Potter?" Lily asked, as they all got to work on their assignment (brew a potion to stave off illness). "He'd love to help with that."

"Exactly," said Kaysa, chopping up some chervil root. "He hates James. I don't. I just want to beat him. I don't want fancy tricks — that's not fair. I just want the same chance as anyone else here would have."

Lily frowned at her, but shrugged.

"Alright then," she said. "I don't get it, but if that's how you want it…"

Kaysa nodded, and kept chopping.

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

When you're waiting for something to happen, time always seems to move strangely. Sometimes very fast, sometimes very slow, but always strangely. This is probably because you are finally paying attention.

To Sirius, waiting for Saturday and James's duel with Kaysa, time moved both too fast and too slow, and always in the opposite of accordance with his wishes. When he was stuck in class wanting to get out to go to the library and learn new spells with his friends, it took forever for the bell to ring. Once they were in the library, however, it always seemed as though they'd only just gotten started when they'd have to leave for dinner, or their next class, or to go do some actual homework.

It was extremely frustrating.

However, by the time Saturday finally rolled around, they had looked up enough spells that Sirius and James were both confident that James would be able to hold his own, even if Kaysa had been practicing. Peter, stanchly loyal, had said that he was sure James would be fine without extra practice, but had happy to help them look through books anyway. Only Remus was still worried; Kaysa was grinning far too much for his liking, he said.

Kaysa's grins didn't seem to bother James though, in fact, Sirius rather thought his friend was looking forward to the duel now. He'd been especially cheerful all day, not even complaining when Peeves the Poltergeist attempted to topple a suit of armor on them on their way to lunch, where he proceeded to eat heartily and then suggest that Sirius and the others come watch the Quidditch practice, even though it was cold and rainy. In the end, only Peter went to see any of it, Sirius and Remus had refused; Sirius on the basis that he didn't want to freeze to death, thank you very much, and Remus said that he had homework. Peter only lasted about half an hour before he gave up and returned, wet, shivering, and sneezing, to the common room. Having foreseen this outcome, Sirius and Remus had saved him a seat by the fire so he was warm and dry by the time James and the rest of the team got back.

"Right," said James, sounding put out about something, "anyone know a good spell for keeping water off things? I can never see when it rains." He pointed to his glasses, which were spotted with water droplets and now fogging over in the sudden warmth.

"You could try _impervious,"_ said Frank Longbottom, who was sitting at a table with Merga and a couple other sixth years. "It will make them repel water, although," he added fairly, "I don't know that it will help if it's really raining hard."

"It's worth a try," said James, flopping down in the armchair next to Sirius. "I'm not much use if I can't see where I'm going or what I'm doing. Thanks, Frank."

Frank nodded, smiling, then turned back to his friends. Kynthia moved to join them, but Merga told her to put on something dry first before she dripped all over their essays and ruined them.

"Ah!" Kynthia exclaimed, feigning indignation, "Here I am, your friend, cold and soaked to the core, and all you care about is your homework? I feel so un-loved!"

"Don't worry, Kynth, I still love you!" said Neal, slinging an arm around the tall blonde's shoulders. "Now go put something dry on. You're no good me if you take sick."

Kynthia tried to act offended, but she was laughing too hard. Sirius grinned, glad to see that there was no awkwardness between them over the team captaincy, and turned to James.

"So, apart from the weather, how was it?" he asked.

"Not too bad," said James, stretching his hands out to fire for warmth. "No one ran into anyone else, anyway. And Kynthia could still see to find the Snitch. Still, I hope it doesn't rain for our next match. If we lose then we're out of the running for sure."

"Now that _would _be a tragedy," said a sarcastic voice. Sirius whipped round to see Kaysa grinning at them, Chitral just behind her. Despite her tone however, she didn't look angry or anything, just mischievous in a general, friendly sort of way. James rolled his eyes at her. Kaysa laughed and leaned sideways against the back of Remus's armchair, facing James and Sirius.

"Maybe you need a spell for seeing heat-signs," she said.

"What?" said James, sounding as confused as Sirius felt.

"To see in the rain," the girl explained. "Muggles have this type of camera that let you see heat signatures. So, like, if you looked at a person, you see a person-shaped spot of red and yellow, because we generate body heat. It would mean you wouldn't have to see through the rain. I think, anyways."

"Somehow," said James, "I don't think there's a spell for that."

"There could be," said Kaysa. "Or you could just invent one."

"Ha! Yeah, right," said James, rolling his eyes again. "Anyway, you ready for tonight?"

"Of course," said Kaysa with one of her grins that showed perhaps more teeth than was strictly necessary. "But can we go outside, instead? I've been thinking and I'd really rather not be responsible for breaking anything in that classroom if it's all the same to you. Plus, I'm not sure there's really enough room."

"Hm, good point," said James frowning. "But it'll be too dark by then. We won't be able to see."

"Oh yeah," said Kaysa looking disappointed.

"Why not just do in now?" asked Chitral, who had evidently gotten bored with standing and plunked herself down in front of the fire.

"But it's pouring rain," said James.

"Not for long," said Chitral, pointing to a window. "Look."

They looked; outside the rain was letting up and the sun was coming out.

"Huh," said James grumpily, "Now that's just plain unfair. Why couldn't it have cleared off earlier for practice instead of stopping just after?"

Kaysa laughed.

"Haven't you noticed yet?" she asked. "In life, the joke always turns out to be on you in the end."

Now it was James's turn to laugh.

"Yeah, alright," he said, "let's do this thing. Only, let's give it five minutes to make sure the rain's not coming back, okay? It really would be a bad joke if we got out there only to have it start up again."

"Works for me," said Kaysa. "I have to feed Cahi again anyway."

Cahi, or Gahi — for the way Kaysa managed to pronounce his nickname it could have been either one — was becoming something of a permanent fixture for Kaysa. She brought him to nearly all their classes and all of their meals, partly so she could feed him, but also because she said he should be socialized properly. Just because he'd attached himself to her, she said, didn't mean he could just go and bite anyone else. And in the three days she'd had him, he'd made remarkable progress; he wouldn't let anyone but Kaysa hold him, but he no longer bit everyone who tried to touch him and he also seemed to have learned the word 'no.' Kaysa said it was all thanks to Professor Kettleburn's help, but even Ketlleburn seemed impressed. Sirius had seen Remus watching Kaysa and the kit too, and knew that he, like Sirius himself, had added this to ever-growing the list of little things about Kaysa and her cousin that just weren't quite normal.

Ten minutes later, Kaysa came back down from the girls' dormitories with the little kit in her arms. He was awake and alert, his big dark eyes staring around at everything, his little nose quivering and his ears pricked. Kaysa sighed.

"He won't sleep," she said as she reached them. "I think he knows something's up."

"How would he know that?" asked Peter. "I mean, he can't understand, can he?"

"I don't think so," replied Kaysa. "Not yet, anyway. But animals often just sort of feel things, like when a horse knows its rider is afraid or something. Either way, he wont' settle. We'll have to take him with us."

"But you're dueling," said Chitral, "What will you do with him then? I don't think he should be directly exposed to magic when he's still so young."

"I'll hold him," Sirius offered quickly, seeing the look on Kaysa's face.

"Er…" said Kaysa, glancing at her cousin, who put up her hands.

"Don't look at me," she said shaking her head. "I don't want him."

"It's okay," said Sirius, "I won't hurt him or anything."

"Oh, it's not that," said Kaysa, looking startled. "It's just, well, he's not exactly easy to hold on to. He's really only good for me, and he doesn't know you. I wouldn't want him to bite you or anything."

"It'll be fine," Sirius said again. "Look, you keep saying he needs to be socialized and all. Just explain to him that by not biting me he _is _being good for you or something."

Something flickered in her eyes for a moment, but it vanished again before Sirius could work out what it had been. Then she said, "I can try, I suppose. I don't know that it'll work, but if you're willing…"

Sirius nodded.

"Come on, let's go then," said James. "If we do this now, we might be done in time for dinner."

They all got their cloaks — it may have stopped raining, but it was still November — and traipsed outside onto the grounds. Finding a place for James and Kaysa's duel was a little tricky; Kaysa wanted to be somewhere where the ground was fairly flat and it would be hard for anyone inside the castle to spot them. James agreed that this would be ideal, but there were only so many places without windows, and even fewer of them were flat or without trees and bushes in the way. Finally, they decided to go over to a tree by the far side of the lake and have their duel behind it. It was flat enough there, and at least the tree's branches would give them some cover from anyone looking out at the grounds from the castle. Then Kaysa handed Cahiran to Sirius.

"Behave!" she told the little kit firmly. "This is Sirius. He helped me find you." Cahi growled softly and snapped at Sirius. Sirius let him do it, wincing slightly as the kit's sharp teeth sank into his index finger.

"I won't put you down just for that," he informed Cahi. "Or did you want me to drop you?" he added, moving his hand so the kit could see how far away the ground was. Cahi seemed to consider for a moment, then he released Sirius's finger, sat up in his palms and began to wash one of his tails as if nothing had ever happened. Sirius laughed.

"Well done," said Kaysa, looking impressed. "What made you think of that?"

"Would you want to fall that far if you were his size?" Sirius asked her.

"Point," said the girl, then she turned to James and asked him something about the rules. Sirius was a bit relieved; he was glad to have impressed her again, but he still had a hard time thinking straight when she talked to him sometimes. Trying not to dwell on Kaysa's pretty eyes or on the light, floaty feeling in his chest, he stroked Cahi's soft fur gently and waited for things to get going.

"Right," said Kaysa finally, "Let's go then."

Sirius looked up. Kaysa and James stood facing each other; they took their wands out, saluted each other, then turned and walked five paces away. Then they both whipped around and took a ready stance.

"En garde!" called Remus loudly. He seemed to have taken it upon himself to referee. "Ready? Allez!"

"_Impedimenta!"_ James shouted, pointing his wand at Kaysa. Sirius frowned; an impediment jinx wasn't likely to do much just now, it was sort of like a stunner only less powerful, meant to slow things down or stop them from moving. But Sirius supposed James didn't want things to end to fast. Kaysa's response was interesting; instead of blocking the spell or just dodging, she dove sideways and down, rolling when she hit the ground and leaping to her feet again in seconds, coming up a good five feet away from where she'd started. She shot a jelly-legs curse at James, but James blocked it with a Shield Charm. Then James pointed his wand at her again, but she wasn't there anymore; she'd rolled again, over and forward, bringing herself closer to James.

"_Expelliarmus!"_ she cried, but her accent had come back in her excitement and she must not have gotten it quite right. Red light shot from her wand and hit James in the leg, but it only made him stumble back a few steps.

"Damn!" Kaysa swore, distracted for a moment. James took advantage of this and hit her with the Leg-Locker Curse. Kaysa's legs snapped together beneath her.

"There! No more running around for you!" James shouted triumphantly. Kaysa actually growled at him, then threw herself sideways and used her upper body to log-roll away from him as he shot a tickling charm at her. In Sirius's arms, Cahiran yipped nervously.

"Don't worry," Sirius told him. "He won't hurt her. This is just for play." The kit looked up at him and flicked one of his ears back as if to say, "You'd better be right about that!"

Back on the field, Kaysa had avoided James's spell and rolled to a stop. Sitting up, she pointed her wand at her own legs and said, _"Finite."_

"Oh, come on!" said James, as her legs came back under her control. _"Expelliarmus!"_

"_Protego!"_

So she did know how to block spells. Sirius had wondered about that when she kept dodging.

"What was all that about at the beginning?" he asked Remus as Kaysa and James continued to shoot spells at each other. "All that 'en garde, ready' stuff."

"I borrowed it from Muggle fencing, actually," said Remus, his eyes never leaving the duel. "I couldn't find anything on whether there are words to start a duel traditionally, but fencing matches are like dueling for Muggles so I figured it would be okay."

"Cool," said Peter, who'd been listening.

"Yeah, but why bother?" asked Sirius.

"I guess this felt official, you know? Formal enough that it should have some kind of tradition behind it," said Remus shrugging.

"_Relashio!"_ James shouted, shooting fiery sparks at Kaysa. Sirius blinked; those sparks weren't exactly dangerous, but they did hurt if they hit you. Kaysa, however, ignored them. She had a determined look on her face. Rushing forward, she pointed her wand and the ground and cried, _"Glisseo!"_ The ground between her and James became smooth stone. Kaysa leapt onto the stone path, dropping to her knees and leaning sideways and back to take her weight on her arm and hand. She slid fast all the way to James's feet, then kicked out, sweeping his feet out from under him and he crashed to the ground. In an instant, Kaysa was on her feet, leaping on top of him and putting her wand-tip to his throat. James froze. Kaysa bared her teeth at him in a feral expression of gleeful triumph.

"Not bad for a girl, eh?" she said panting just a bit. James stared up at her for a moment, then he grinned.

"Not bad at all, but you forgot something." Then he brought his wand up fast and shouted, _"Stupefy!"_

_

* * *

_

A/N: yes, i know, sort of a really bad place to stop... but if i'd kept going this would have been even longer than the last one. i feel that a chapter over 10000 words long is fine in an actual novel, but gets hard to manage on a website. so i cut myself off. i promise to try and get the next chap up as soon as possible!

really, _really!_

~SilverKit'sFire

(*makes bambi eyes* please don't hate me... )


	9. Dumb Luck

disclaimer: HP and it's characters are not mine, just Kaysa, Chitral, and a few others

A/N: okay, sorry this took a while (okay, maybe it really wasn't so long, but it felt long to me...) my internet is having issues. anyway, here's the next chap. enjoy! review, ask questions, all that good stuff!

* * *

**_Dumb Luck_**

**_(Kaysa)_**

Kaysa flew back off of James and landed on the ground in a heap. Sirius, Remus, and Peter all cheered as James clambered to his feet. Chitral ran to her, but Kaysa was already sitting up.

"Not bad, Potter," she said, accepting Chitral's hand up and silently cursing herself for forgetting to disarm him. Still, for her first ever Wizard's Duel, she thought she'd done pretty well for herself. She brushed herself off and shook. "That was fun!"

"Uh, Kays," Chitral murmured quietly in her ear and speaking their own native language, "should you have recovered from a stunner so soon?"

"What?" Kaysa muttered back, thrown.

"Stupefy," said Chitral, "it's a stunning spell, remember?"

"Oh, damn," said Kaysa; she had forgotten. "Oh well, too late now. We'll just have to run with it."

"How are you walking?" asked Remus sharply as they approached. Kaysa ignored him and went to take Cahi, who was yipping frantically and squirming in Sirius's arms.

"Here, I'll take him," she said, reaching out for the little kitsune. "Thanks, by the way."

"No problem," Sirius mumbled, not meeting her eyes. She sighed and wished again she'd remembered about the damned stunners; maybe she would have to give some explanation after all. But first things first.

"Okay," she said, turning to face James, "you won. Ask your questions."

"How—" James began, but Remus grabbed his arm.

"Wait," he said. "We don't want to waste them."

"Alright," said James, sounding a bit exasperated. "But while you think about what to ask, can I ask something else? It won't count as part of the bargain, you don't have to answer."

"Shoot," Kaysa told him shrugging.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" James burst out, staring at her. "I mean, you said you'd never dueled before but it sure didn't seem like it. I've never anyone do it like that."

Kaysa shrugged again.

"I told you I'd done some martial arts," she said. "I really have never dueled before, but the principle is the same. And Lily practiced with me some."

Not that Lily had taught her much of what she'd just done. She and Snape had explained the basics of dueling to her and had let her practice the Shield Charm and the Disarming Charm on them till she'd got the hang of it and that had been it. Neither of them knew she'd then gone to the library and looked up spell after spell, choosing the ones she could do and that were flexible enough to work well with her own personal style of doing thing.

It wasn't that she didn't appreciate Lily's and even Snape's help; she did. It was just that they didn't seem to understand that, if you were creative enough, this was so much more than just throwing spells at an opponent. Although, given these boys' reactions, perhaps that was normal, rather than evidence of a lack of imagination. Why was it that whenever you handed a person a tool called 'magic' they promptly decided that it, and it alone, should provide the answers now?

"Where'd you learn that last one?" asked Sirius. "I've never heard of it before."

"Library," said Kaysa grinning at them. "A most useful place."

"It wasn't in any of the books we looked at," said James, not bothering to hide the fact he'd been studying for this too. Kaysa laughed.

"I doubt you looked in the right books," she told him. "I found that one in a book on landscaping."

"Landscaping?"

"Yeah," said Kaysa, grinning. "Takam, our instructor, always used to say that sometimes knowing the terrain is half the battle."

Just then the sky opened up again and dumped water on them.

"Let's go inside," said James. "While Remus thinks up questions, you can tell us about this instructor of yours."

Kaysa smiled, tucked Cahi into a pocket inside her cloak, then looped one arm though James's and the other though Sirius's and said, "Ah, yes. We can go to that most marvelous of places, the Library! Come on, you lot!" she called to Chitral and the other two boys, then she marched off, dragging Sirius and James with her.

**_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_**

By the time they reached the library on the fourth floor, it was absolutely miserable outside. Sirius could tell because the table they'd chosen, which was tucked away in a corner and in between bookshelves and therefore almost impossible to see, was also right next to a high paned window. Rain lashed against the glass and would have made a lot of noise, except that Remus had cast a silencing charm on it. It didn't stop the noise completely, but you could at least hear yourself think.

Kaysa had kept her arms linked though his and James's all the way back to the castle and the beginning of the stairs. Sirius had terrified the whole way that he would trip or that she would somehow feel how fast and hard his heart had been pounding, but she hadn't seemed to notice anything.

Of course, from a certain point of view, that might have been worse, but at least he didn't feel like an idiot.

"So," she said, looking at Remus, "ask your questions then."

Remus, sat between James and Peter, eyed her for a moment.

"I only get three?" he said.

"That's right," Kaysa verified. "And we promise to answer truthfully."

Remus nodded, then asked, "Where are you from?"

Kaysa glanced at Chitral, then back to Remus.

"You wouldn't have heard of it," she said.

"Then show us," said Remus.

"You mean, like, on a map?"

"Of course."

"I can't," Kaysa protested. "It's not on any maps."

"You mean it's unplottable?" asked Remus. "And that isn't one of my questions."

"What's unplottable?" asked Kaysa, rolling her eyes.

"Like Hogwarts," Remus explained. "You can magic a place so it can't be plotted on a map."

"Oh," said Kaysa. She frowned. "Yeah, I guess you could say that, then."

Sirius frowned; that wasn't actually a yes. Remus had caught it too, but though his eyes narrowed, all he said was, "If I ask something and you don't answer, do I get another question?"

"I suppose that's only fair," Kaysa allowed. Chitral elbowed her and gave her a pointed look.

"Well, it is," said Kaysa, looking at her. "I agreed to answer three questions. If they ask one I can't answer then it shouldn't count."

Chitral rapped out something sharp that Sirius couldn't understand. Kaysa glowered.

"I made a deal," she said in English. "I gave my word, Chi. I won't go back on it just because it's complicated or whatever."

"You mean dangerous!" Chitral snapped, breaking into English again. "Say too much and we'll all have had it."

"Explain," Remus demanded.

"That's not a question," said Kaysa, still looking at Chitral.

"Alright, then. Why can't you answer some questions and why would we all have had it?"

"Our people are . . . close," said Kaysa slowly, "private. They don't like outsiders knowing too much. If we tell you about stuff like home and all, we would get in trouble and probably so would you."

"Why don't they like outsiders?" asked Sirius curiously.

"They don't really trust them, I guess," said Kaysa apologetically. "It's nothing personal, or anything. It's just . . . bad history, sort of."

"And that was three questions," said Chitral, "We're done now."

"What?" said James and Remus together.

"No it wasn't," said Sirius.

"Yes it was," said Chitral. "You asked why we don't like outsiders, and Remus asked why we couldn't answer some questions and why we'd get into trouble."

"Those were part of the same question," Remus argued.

"It was still two questions, plus Sirius's makes three."

"Chitral," said Kaysa sighing, "that's not really fair. It _was _sort of the same question."

"I don't think mine should count," said Sirius. "I mean, you didn't have to answer, I was just curious."

Kaysa opened her mouth but Remus cut her off.

"Good," he said quickly, "so we have two left."

"No," Kaysa interrupted firmly. "You have one left."

"No, two. Sirius is right, his shouldn't count," said Remus.

"Oh for the love of — alright, fine! Two," Kaysa snapped. "Just ask them already, would you?"

"How come the stunner didn't seem to affect you?" Remus asked.

"What do you mean? It did," said Kaysa.

"No," said Remus, "I mean, sure, you flew back, but then you got straight up again."

"Maybe it wasn't very strong," Kaysa shrugged.

"No," said James flatly. "I know that spell, I'm good at it. It should have knocked you out."

"But did you want it to?" asked Kaysa. "I mean, you could have used it earlier, but you didn't."

"Yeah, well, I mean, we weren't fighting to hurt each other," said James, inspecting his nails. "I guess it didn't really feel fair."

"What's that got to do with it?" Sirius wanted to know.

"I don't know," said Kaysa, holding her hands up in bewilderment. "Maybe he just didn't want it enough? I mean, how should I know? I'm still just a student, here. Like you guys."

"Why would wanting it matter?" asked Remus.

"What are you talking about?" said Kaysa sounding startled. "Don't you have to want things in magic? I mean, that's how it works at ho—"

She stopped, but too late. Remus grinned and raised an eyebrow at her.

"That's how it worked at home, was it?" he asked. "And why would they have been teaching you magic at home I wonder."

Chitral glowered furiously at Kaysa who pinched the bridge of her nose and muttered darkly under her breath. Then she looked back up at Remus and sighed.

"Are you making that an official question?" she asked resignedly.

"Yes," said Remus. "Since you can't seem to explain about the stunner not affecting you, you can explain that instead. And then we still have one question left."

Kaysa and Chitral exchanged looks again, then Kaysa said slowly, "Actually, the two questions might have the same answer. Look, you know that the magic they teach here, Wizarding magic, it's not the only kind of magic out there, right? I mean, goblins have their own brand of magic, and there's other kinds of magical creatures whose magical properties don't function the way our spell do, right?"

She paused and glanced around the table. The boys all nodded to show that they understood this.

"Well," she continued, "our people have their own kind of magic too. Look, I can't tell you much more than that. It's one of the reasons our community is so close; we don't want people knowing. Anyway, Chi and me, we didn't get much training for it — you don't really start learning until about eight and then we turned out to be witches. But it's keyed to what you want, so it's possible that since I didn't really want to lose or get stunned that it protected me somehow I guess."

There was silence for a moment as Sirius and his friends digested this, then:

"You know _two_ kinds of magic?" said James.

"Yes," said Kaysa.

"And you didn't say anything? What about our duel? Was it even fair then?" James sputtered. Kaysa stared at him.

"I tell you we know another kind of magic and that's all you can say?" she asked with dry incredulity. "You're worried about whether or not I used my power or something to beat you? You won, remember?"

"Yeah, but you'd have had me if you'd remembered to disarm me!" said James. "And you said it was your first Wizard's Duel."

"I also told you I'd taken some lessons in fighting," Kaysa said, still looking shocked that this, of all things, was what James was hung up on. "When I was practicing with Lily, it wasn't exactly hard to figure out that no one would expect me to get creative and sort of combine the two, even though I already pointed out the advantages of not relying so heavily on magic. But I didn't use anything of magic that I learned at home."

"Besides, most of what we really know is just healer's stuff," said Chitral. "At home, they want you to start with ways to help people, not hurt them."

"And we really shouldn't tell you any more about than that, okay?" said Kaysa. "Like I said, I like you guys okay. I would hate to get you into trouble over something like this when things are only just starting to get interesting."

"So we are friends, then?" asked Sirius, frowning. "I mean, you wouldn't care about getting us in trouble otherwise, right?"

Kaysa put her head to one side, thinking.

"I don't know," she said finally. "I still feel like that's up to you guys. But we do seem to keep ending up together, don't we? So, yeah, I guess. Friends… maybe."

"Yeah, whatever," said Chitral shortly. "Last question."

Remus shook his head.

"I want to save it," he said.

"Alright," said Kaysa agreeably. "But the same rules as before apply."

"Fine," said James, "now can we go to dinner? I'm starving!"

Kaysa laughed.

"Yeah, me too, actually. Let's go," she said. A soft yip sounded from inside her hood and Cahiran poked his head out, ears pricked and little nose quivering.

"I think he agrees," said Sirius grinning at Kaysa. She grinned back.

"Well, he is a growing boy," she said. "Aren't you guys supposed to always be hungry?"

"Oh yes," said James mock seriously. "Just ask Peter here. He'll tell you. Food is all we ever thing about."

Peter blushed slightly.

"Food isn't _all _I ever think about," he protested. "I think about other things too. Like, like fun."

"And good jokes," Sirius put in, praying to God that no one would mention thinking about girls. "We love laughing."

"And causing trouble," Remus added. "I don't think anyone likes causing trouble s much as these two." He indicated James and Sirius.

"Of course," said James. "That's why you like us so much. You need us to remind you that there's more to life than education."

"Um…" said Kaysa, looking around at them, evidently confused, "so to get you all interested in something, we need a good joke about food that's educational but also gets us into trouble? I mean, I can think of a few, maybe, but none that are anything like appropriate."

"What?" asked James, laughing at her.

"What what?" said Kaysa staring back. "I don't get it! What are you on about?"

Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter all laughed and laughed. They couldn't help it; she really didn't get it.

"You still need to work on your English," James told her.

"Or at least on recognizing when someone's just being silly, not serious," added Sirius, then he asked, "Do you really know jokes like that?"

"Sadly, yes," said Kaysa. "Maybe I'll tell you someday. But I wasn't kidding, they're not appropriate. We wouldn't know any except that Tsay never thinks before she opens her mouth."

"Kaysa," Chitral said as they all left the library and headed down the stairs to dinner, "I'm not sure that counts as 'educational.'"

"Why not?" Kaysa retorted. "I mean, _I _learned something. Granted, sometimes I wish I hadn't, but still…"

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Peter.

"Trust me," said Chitral holding up her hand, "You really don't want to know."

Over the next two weeks things started to fall into a sort of pattern. Or, at least a kind of predictability. Kaysa and Chitral still hung out with Lily and her friends, but more and more they spent time with they boys. It was fun, having them around, and Sirius decided that he really liked both of them, but he still struggled to hide his crush on Kaysa from either of them. Some days were harder than others; usually, if he'd been around her for a while, it was easier. If he hadn't really seen her and Chitral for a day or so because they'd been spending time with Lily, it tended to be harder. It was one of the harder days that premised his doing something that, in retrospect, would probably prove to be the smartest (or at the least most fortunate) stupid thing he'd ever done.

It was a Tuesday. Kaysa and Chitral hadn't hung out much over the weekend due to homework, but they had come to watch one of James's Quidditch practices. Both girls had seemed pretty impressed with James and Sirius supposed later that perhaps it was been this that caused him to confuse Kaysa with a normal girl and think that showing her a bug was somehow a good idea.

They were in Herbology in the morning with the Ravenclaws, pruning some small prickly shrubs Professor Sprout called Purring Scrap Trees, when he saw the thing. It looked like a caterpillar that someone had put an engorgement charm on. Sirius stared at it for a moment, taking in its fat, swollen-looking body and stubby little feet, then glanced sidelong at Kaysa who was working on the tree next to him. He wondered if she would find it interesting. Maybe. Certainly most girls would be grossed out at least. That could be good, he decided. Taking off his protective gloves, he picked the thing up.

"Want to see something really gross?" he asked her.

"Sure," she said, shrugging.

"Check out this caterpillar." He held it out to show her.

"That's not a caterpillar," Kaysa said, her eye wide with surprise, "that's a Tomato Hornworm! What's it doing in here? I mean, it's not like we have any tomatoes in here." She looked sideways at him, and said slyly, "I think we had better kill it," and, taking off her own gloves and picking up her knife, she slit the Hornworm, which Sirius was still holding, from end to end.

Sirius fought back a cry of disgust as the thing's insides spilled out and oozed nastily onto his palm. Well, so much for grossing her out, he thought. She had just turned the tables on him so completely it was embarrassing. How had she done that?

"You know," Kaysa mused, looking thoughtfully at the Hornworm in his hand, "they're supposed to be very rich in protein —"

"If you eat that thing," said Sirius, trying his best to sound mock-threatening as oppose to revolted, "I promise you I will make sure you get everything I bring up," because, much as h hated to admit it, even just to himself, he honestly wasn't sure he could watch her eat the oozing thing without throwing up.

Kaysa laughed. "No worries," she said, grinning. "With the meals they serve us here, there's no need for bugs on the menu. However —" she broke off suddenly and whirled around to slap at the Venomous Tentacula that had attached itself to her shoulder. "Rude!" she told it, shaking a finger at the plant. "Anyway," she said turning back and raising her hand.

"Yes?" said Professor Sprout, walking over to them.

"Professor, Sirius found a Tomato Hornworm," Kaysa said, pointing to the dead Hornworm he was still holding. "I don't know if there are more of them, but you might want to have people keep their eyes open, just in case."

"Yes, indeed," said Professor Sprout, reaching out and taking the Hornworm from Sirius and inspecting it. "Yes I think I will. They can wreak havoc on a garden you know," and she left to dispose of the remains of the thing.

Sirius went back to pruning his plant, but he wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing. He forgot to put his protective gloves back on because he was busy watching Kaysa. She really was like no other girl he'd ever met.

"Ouch!"

Sirius yelped as his knife slipped, gashing open his left palm. He dropped the knife. Blood spurted from the cut. Sirius stood staring at it, his brain seemed to have been stupefied. He heard, as though from a great distance, gasps and James calling his name and then the sound of fabric tearing. Then a pair of delicate, ivory hands appeared, pulling up his sleeve and tying a strip of black cloth very tightly just below his elbow and then another even tighter around his wrist. A third strip went over the gash itself, wrapped several times around his hand. Then someone — Kaysa, he realized, as his stomach did a flip — grabbed his right hand and pulled him toward the door.

"Hospital Wing!" Kaysa called to Professor Sprout as she dragged Sirius out of the Green House. "Run," she told him. He ran, and she ran too, never letting go of his hand. She was a swift runner; he had a hard time keeping up as she pulled him back into the castle and along the corridors toward the Hospital Wing.

When they got there, Kaysa pushed him down onto a bed, ordered him to keep his hand elevated, and dashed off to find Madam Pomfrey. Sirius peeled off the loose binding on the cut and looked at his hand. Dark red blood had run down his arm, staining the black strips of cloth Kaysa had tied around it. The cut itself was no longer gushing blood, though a certain amount was oozing steadily from it. A moment later, Kaysa returned, swearing quite colorfully under her breath.

"Bloody stupid hallway skirmishes!" she snarled. "Madam Pomfrey has about a dozen odd curses and hexes to sort out just now and apparently they can't wait," she looked at Sirius, who was pale and swaying dangerously where he sat, and frowned. Reaching out, she placed a hand on his forehead.

"I'm not ill," he protested, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it; it felt fuzzy. Fuzzier than it should have just from being alone with Kaysa. Maybe he _was _ill.

"No, you're not," Kaysa agreed, "but blood's important. Don't you know that? If you lose too much blood, your brain can't get enough oxygen and you die."

"You die?" Sirius echoed faintly. He was trying to think if he should know this; he was pretty sure he knew that blood was important, but he wasn't actually sure anyone had ever explained why.

"Yes," said Kaysa. "Well," she amended, "first you pass out, then I suppose technically you become truly comatose and then you die," she inspected him critically for a moment, then said, "I reckon with in a minute or so you'll hit the passing out phase."

"Is that why my head feels weird?" he asked curiously.

"Probably."

Kaysa cast a glance down the Wing, looking for Madam Pomfrey, and swore violently. Then, sitting down on the bed and facing Sirius, she reached over and took hold of his left wrist, pinching it even more tightly than the strip of cloth she had tied there. Reaching into her robes with her free hand, she pulled out some white stuff that looked like gauze. As it turned out, it was gauze. Kaysa used it to soak up the blood on his hand. Then she remove the gauze and inspected the gash in his palm, gently fingering the flap of skin, still holding tight to his wrist. Then she pulled a little bottle out of her robes and uncorked it with her teeth.

"My hand's going to sleep," Sirius informed her.

"Good. Now, this will sting," she warned him. "Probably a lot."

It certainly did. Sirius's whole body jerked as she poured the liquid slowly over the cut, never letting go of his wrist. She glanced around once more for any sign of Madam Pomfrey, then sighed. Looking him straight in the eye, she said, "You can never tell anyone I can do this."

"Do what?"

For answer she placed her right hand over his and closed her eyes. Bright, emerald green fire flared from her fingers and flowed over the cut in his hand. It was the weirdest sensation, like being pulled on and pushed upon all at once. A second later the green fiery stuff vanished and Kaysa opened her eyes again. She inspected his hand and nodded, looking pleased. Then she took out a knife and cut off the strips of cloth she had tied so tightly around his arm. When she had released him, Sirius looked at his hand. He stared. The cut was not there anymore. There was no evidence that it had ever been there. Glancing quickly up at Kaysa, he saw she was smiling.

"Good, isn't it?" she said casually.

"How — ?" he started, but at that precise moment, Madam Pomfrey came bustling over.

"What's the problem?" she asked.

"The problem is no more," Kaysa said irritably. "I fixed it myself, just like I'm _not_ supposed to do."

"Well," said Madam Pomfrey, looking harassed, "then I suppose you had better 'fix' his memory, too, hadn't you."

"No," said Kaysa, "I think I'd rather not."

"But —"

"This is the second time Chitral or I has had to use our magic, and, oddly enough, last time it was someone from his group of friends as well. I think they must be getting accident prone, because that's twice in as many months. Constant memory modification is not at all healthy, and if this trend persists, they'll be better off knowing the truth."

"But you're not allowed — you must —" said Madam Pomfrey.

"No!" said Kaysa firmly. "I know the rules, but I think they must be bent here. It will certainly make life a lot easier."

"Very well," said Madam Pomfrey. "But I shall be informing the headmaster of this."

"You do that," said Kaysa, turning back to Sirius as Madam Pomfrey turned and bustled off again.

"So what's this all about?" he asked, very confused. "And what was that green stuff?"

"Healing magic," Kaysa said. "Remember when Chitral said most of what we had learned at home was healing stuff? Well that's sort of just it: my people _are_ healers."

"What's so weird about that? There's Healers all over the place at St. Mungo's."

"No, that's just a title. They're not real healers. My people are. It's a completely different kind of magic and — oh boy. Look, I'd really rather only have to explain this once, so let's wait til your friends arrive. And then I can show you all."

"What do you mean, you can 'show us'?"

Kaysa hesitated, then asked, "Have you ever heard of telepathy?"

"Telepathy?" Sirius said incredulously. "That's that Muggle nonsense about being able to talk to people with your mind, isn't it? But it doesn't really exist."

"Are you willing to bet your life on that?" Kaysa asked him softly, one dark eyebrow raised.

Sirius blinked. What was she talking about? Was she trying to tell him telepathy really actually did exist? In answer, her voice suddenly sounded inside his head, echoing slightly and laced with barely suppressed amusement.

_Welcome to the real world . . ._

Sirius stared at her for a moment, completely stunned. Then his brain seemed to click back on and his mind raced, trying to figure out what all this meant. She could talk in his head? Could he talk back to her that way, then? Could anyone? Was it something everyone could do and just didn't know it?

Then a truly terrifying thought struck him, effectively stopping his train of thought by totally derailing it.

Oh God, she could read minds! What if she knew he had a crush on her?

Now he was eyeing her in a kind of suspicious horror.

"How, I mean, what — can you see in my mind?" he demanded sharply.

"Oh no," Kaysa assured. "I mean, I could if I wanted, I guess, but you _never _just break into someone's mind." She looked appalled at the very thought. "It's the ultimate violation. Any telepath who does so is brought before the Council and severely punished. It's one of our highest laws. The only exceptions are when you have to in order to save someone's life, and even then you still might be better off finding another way."

"Oh, good," said Sirius, relaxing back against the pillows, thoroughly relieved. Then he realized what she'd said. "Wait. 'Any telepath' you said? There are more of you?"

Kaysa sighed. "Wait for explanations til the others get here, okay?" she said. "I'm calling Chi. She'll make sure the others all come and then I promise we'll tell you everything. For real, this time."

Sirius nodded, then surprised himself by yawning. Kaysa chuckled.

"Get some rest," she told him. "You lost a lot of blood."

"Okay," he mumbled, curling onto his side and closing his eyes. "Just promise not to let the fun start without me."

"I promise," Kaysa murmured.

**_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_**

**_(Kaysa)_**

Watching Sirius doze off, Kaysa smiled faintly. She'd noticed that all boys everywhere, regardless of species or age, looked sweet and innocent when they were sleeping. It was like a universal rule of maledom or something. You looked at them like that and you found yourself starting to wonder things like what they must have been like at about four years old.

Then she shook herself and turned her mind to the far more pressing matter of what she'd just promised. Chitral was going to kill her. Sighing and steeling herself against the inevitable, she reached out to her cousin.

_Chi? Chitral!_

_? _Chitral's response didn't actually come in words. It was more like a sense, a mixture of curiosity, urgency, and fear all wrapped up together.

_He's fine, _Kaysa assured her, _just tired. He lost a lot of blood. He's sleeping now. Can you bring the others up here after class?_

Suspicion flared in Chitral's mind. _Why? _she asked. The simple questions encompassed so much more this way. Why did she have to bring them? Why did she have do be there at all? Why was Kaysa even asking, since the boy's friends would probably have gone to him straight after class anyway?

Kaysa sighed. _I had to heal him, _she explained reluctantly. _It wasn't my fault! _she added as Chitral's mind snarled at her. _Madame Pomfrey had about five other students and twenty-odd hexes to sort out! It wasn't like I just did it. I had to._

_Alright, alright. Fine! _Chitral snapped. _I suppose it's not like I didn't see this coming. I just thought we'd have a little more time, is all. You know, this would be easier if you would just come back._

Kaysa shook her head. _No, I would rather stay, just in case he wakes up or something. He knows just enough that he'd probably flip if he thought I'd backed out of explaining. And I told him about the telepathy thing so I suppose you may as well tell the others._

_WHAT? Oh stars, Kaysa —_

_Well, it'll be easier to explain about us this way,_ Kaysa informed her practically. _And it seems silly to tell them everything else but hold back about this, doesn't it?_

_I suppose, but still, Kaysa, Dumbledore is going to flay us._

_No he won't, _sent Kaysa, including an image of herself rolling her eyes. _Trig might though, if we can't impress upon them the need for secrecy._

Chitral considered this for a second then sent, _You do realize that by agreeing to tell them this, we're basically saying that we really, really trust them, right?_

_Yes._

_Well, do you? _In Chitral's mind, Kaysa saw images of James and Sirius sneaking around at night, pulling off pranks, and trading curses and hexes with Snape. Kaysa nodded, thinking, but then her own mind offered up images of those same boys sticking up of Peter and helping him with homework and covering for Remus every month, diligently guarding their friend's secret.

_Yes, _she decided, _yes, I do._

Chitral took a deep breath. _Okay then. I'll bring them. But I'll wait to explain about the telepathy if I can._

_Why?_

_Because, as it's your fault we're in this situation, I think the vast majority of explaining things should fall on you._

She cut their connection. Kaysa blinked, then laughed ruefully.

"Well, I suppose that's fitting," she said to no one in particular. Then she pulled a book out of her bag and settled onto the windowsill to wait.

* * *

A/N: okay, so the next chap might take a while to do... my internet is having some serious issues. sorry. but it might take me a while to write anyway... i have to figure out a good way for the girls to explain things...

anyway, hope you're all enjoying this. please let me know what you think ^_^

~SilverKit'sFire


	10. A Thing Done Proper

disclaimer: HP and it's characters are not mine, just Kaysa, Chitral, and a few others not appearing in this chapter

A/N: okay, so i know i said this would probably take a while for me to get posted... i lied. it kept bugging me so i had to write it. i'm not totally sure it's how i want it, but i figure it's good enough for now and if it really makes no sense, one of you can let me know, right?

enjoy!

* * *

**_A Thing Done Proper_**

"Why's he sleeping?"

"Is he okay? I mean, it's the middle of the day."

"He's fine. It's just the blood loss. His body needs time and rest in order to recover fully."

That was Kaysa's voice, and the others…

"Hey! Good, you're here," said Sirius, sitting up and then freezing and grabbing the side of the bed as his head spun. "Whoa."

"You okay, mate?" That was James; he sounded concerned.

"What? Yeah, no, I'm fine," said Sirius, shaking his head to clear it and then wishing he hadn't. "Just a bit —"

"Dizzy?" Kaysa guessed. "Well, don't move so fast. Here, drink." She pushed a glass of water into his hands. "Give it til tomorrow, you'll be fine."

"A'course I will," said Sirius confidently. "It was just a cut."

"Nothing that hits a major artery is ever 'just' a cut," said Kaysa sternly, smacking him lightly upside the head. "Too much blood loss kills you, remember?"

"Yeah, whatever," said Sirius, "Look, are you going to explain now or what?"

"Explain what?" asked Remus sharply.

"About us," said Kaysa. "Yes, we are, but not here. I don't want anyone overhearing."

"Okay," said James, "hey, Peter, know anywhere good?"

Sirius grinned as Kaysa and Chitral exchanged mystified glances. People always underestimated Peter. It was nice to know that now there would be two more people who wouldn't anymore.

"Hmm, er, let me think," said Peter, wrinkling his brow. He considered for a moment, then nodded. "Okay," he said, "follow me."

"Wait a minute," said Remus, holding up a hand as Peter started for the door, "Sirius, don't you need to be discharged or whatever?"

"Er…" said Sirius, glancing sideways at Kaysa, "I don't think so…"

"No, he doesn't," said Kaysa. "We were just waiting for you all to get here."

"Really…" said Remus, eyeing her.

"Oh, come on, let's just go, already," said Sirius rolling his eyes. "I thought you wanted answers, Remus."

As he slid down off the bed, Sirius noticed Kaysa watching him closely.

"I told you I'm fine," he said gruffly, not quite sure whether to be more pleased or just annoyed. Sure, it must mean something that she cared enough to be worried about him, but at the same time, it was embarrassing to have nearly fainted in front of her.

"Yeah, yeah," Kaysa retorted, "just take that with you, okay?" She indicated the glass of half-drunk water in his hands, then took the pitcher from the bedside table. "You need the fluids."

Sirius wondered for a moment if he ought to tell her not to take it since it really belonged in the hospital wing and Madame Pomfrey would probably be upset. Then he remembered the way the girl had talked to Madame Pomfrey and decided to save his breath. He wasn't sure he could have convinced her anyway. The more he got to know her, the more he felt that she was the type of person who did her own thing and never mind what anyone else said.

A bit like himself and James, really. Maybe that was why he was so drawn to her.

A few minutes later found them all tucked away in a small hidden passageway that Peter said came out somewhere by the lavatories on the second floor. It was a bit cramped with all six of them back there, but Peter said it widened up towards the middle and they would all be able to sit down. Kaysa and Chitral were looking around the stonewalled passage with their eyebrows raised.

"How'd you guys find this place?" asked Chitral.

"Peter," said James, grinning and waving at the shorter boy, who blushed slightly. "He has a knack for finding stuff like this."

"Nice," said Kaysa, throwing Peter an approving look.

"Thanks," Peter mumbled. "Um, here, we should be okay to sit down now." Sirius smiled as everyone started looking for a comfortable place to sit; Peter, unlike himself and James, did not always relish being at the center of everyone's attention. Sirius wondered if the others even realized how effectively he'd distracted them. Then he realized he was sitting between James and Remus while Kaysa sat beside Chitral and Peter and he wished he'd been less distracted himself. Sitting next to Kaysa was easier for him; then he didn't have to worry about whether or not he was staring as much.

"Right," said Kaysa, frowning. "Let's see, how to start…"

"Usually, the beginning is a pretty food place to start," said Remus lightly. Kaysa shot him a look.

"Not everything has a proper beginning," she said irritably. "Asking us to explain about us to you is a little like asking you to explain what a human wizard is to a fish or something. Our task is made only slightly less complicated by the fact that you lot probably have more higher brain function than a fish."

"Probably!" echoed James in tones of indignation. "What do you mean only 'probably'?"

"Well, you are thirteen year-old boys," Kaysa pointed out. "Now, hold on a moment and let me think — Chi —" She turned and looked at her cousin, who pursed her lips. Half a second later, Kaysa shook her head.

"Hey!" said Sirius, realizing suddenly what was going on. "Don't do that! Talk out loud so we know what's going on."

"Eh?" said James, looking back and forth from Sirius to the girls, bewildered.

"Oh yeah," said Chitral, shaking her head a little, "I'd forgotten you'd told him about that."

"About what?" Remus demanded.

"Ah, well," said Kaysa, shrugging. "I suppose that's as good a place as any to start. Better even, maybe. It could make things easier later." She turned to Sirius and his friends. "We're telepathic, we can speak to each other with our minds."

There was silence for a moment, then James said, "Bollocks."

"Pardon?" said Kaysa, this evidently not being among the swears in her vocabulary.

"It means sort of like, 'No way,'" Sirius explained, "only, with emphasis."

"Oh," said Kaysa, "well then, yes way. We can."

"No you can't," said James.

"Yes they can," said Remus, before Sirius could say anything. "I mean, at least, it makes sense, doesn't it? It's how you knew to bring us to the Hospital Wing after class, isn't it?"

Chitral, to whom the question had been directed, nodded.

"That doesn't mean anything," argued James, "we'd have gone anyway."

"Yeah, but she still knew to come with us, and she was mad about something," said Remus. "Why be angry if she didn't know Kaysa was planning on telling us whatever it is they've been hiding?"

"But mind reading is impossible," said James, though he sounded less sure now. "Professor Reardon said so, remember?"

Professor Reardon was their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year and he had discussed briefly with them the subject of mind reading one day when Lily had asked about Ligilimency. Sirius frowned; James was right, Reardon had said it was impossible. The mind was supposed to be too complex for that.

"We're not mind readers," said Kaysa patiently. "Mind reading is impossible because it assumes that the mind is a constant, rather than a fluid thing. You could look into a person's memory and even if you always found the same memory, no matter how many times you looked, it'd still never be quite the same twice. The things we notice change, the way we think changes. The mind is more like a landscape than a book. You don't read it, you explore it."

"But not without that mind's consent," said Chitral. "Breaking into someone's mind against their will is taboo. You never do it."

"That's right," said Kaysa nodding, "but it can be a very efficient and useful form of communication."

"Alright then," said James, "prove it."

_As you wish. _Kaysa's voice sounded in their minds, echoing slightly, and Sirius grinned as James's eyes went wide. Then he wondered how he knew Kaysa was speaking to all of them.

_You feel them here, _Kaysa told him. _See? _Sirius _felt_, and realized she was right; he wasn't quite sure who was who yet, but he recognized the sense of her and he could feel others present too.

_Can I speak like this too? _he asked. _Can you guys here me?_

_Yeah! _That was James. Sirius concentrated, trying to work out which individual mind was his. _Oh, this is so cool! Look, guys, no mouth!_

_Ha ha, _sent Kaysa dryly, then she said out loud, "Okay, I proved it. Back to business now, please."

"Hey!" James protested as she cut their mental communiqué, "That was cool, put it back. I wasn't done testing it out yet."

"You do realize we're kind of on a schedule here, right?" said Kaysa sighing. "I can teach you more about telepathy later, but we have class in about half an hour. I happen to like Care of Magical Creatures. I'd as soon not miss it."

"Oh yeah," said James, "okay. So you're telepathic. What else?"

"Well, we're — we're…" she sighed and dragged her hands over her face, frustrated. "Damn, this is so hard to explain. I'm so used to people just knowing. Look, you've got to understand, the world is so much bigger than you — any of you — realize. And I don't just mean this planet, I mean everything. There's so much more out there — other worlds, other life forms, other magics… When people say the universe is infinite around here, they have no idea just how right they are.

"When we say we're not from around here," she continued, indicating Chitral and herself, "we mean like, really, _really _not from around here. I couldn't show you on a map because you don't even have ones of the right star system, let alone the right galaxy."

"You're from another planet." Sirius had to say it out loud, otherwise he couldn't get his head around it. It was like the idea was so big somehow that there wasn't room.

"Yes," said Kaysa. She opened her mouth to say more, but Sirius put up a hand.

"Give me a minute," he said. "I just… need to process that." Kaysa nodded and waited. Sirius closed his eyes and tried to re-order his thoughts. Other planets, even other galaxies? But then, his own Wizarding World managed to hide from the Muggles. And he knew it wasn't like humans were the only sentient life forms on Earth; there were centaurs and merfolk and house elves and giants after all.

"Okay," he said, "so you're _really_ not from around here. Got it. Sorry, keep going."

Kaysa raised an eyebrow. "Anyone else need a moment?" she asked. James, Peter, and Remus all shook their heads. "That was quick."

"We're wizards," said James, shrugging.

"Yeah," Peter put in. "We're kinda used to weird stuff."

Kaysa and Chitral exchanged wry looks.

"And here was me thinking we'd be all cool and interesting for being foreign," said Kaysa with a twisted smile.

"Oh no," said Chitral, grinning, "it was the telepathy that got them. And that's not even all that uncommon."

"It's not?" said James.

"How did you think merfolk communicated?" asked Kaysa.

"I thought they had a language," said Remus. "I read about it."

"Well, yeah, they have a spoken language," Kaysa agreed, "but they have a mental component, too. I mean, it's simpler than ours, I think they can only convey things like emotions and maybe simple ideas or concepts, but it's there."

"How come we don't know about it?" Remus asked. "I mean, if we knew, it would have been in one of the books I read. Wouldn't it?"

"Well," said Chitral, "it's not the kind they can let you tap into. And even if they have the right words to explain, I'm not sure they'd see any point in telling you, so why would you know?"

"Yeah, okay," said Sirius trying to steer the conversation back to its original purpose. "So you're telepathic and from another planet. But there's more to it than that, isn't there?"

There was silence for a moment, then, "Okay, he's sharp, too," said Chitral, giving him an appraising look. Kaysa grinned.

"Told you," she said. Sirius looked at his lap, feeling his face heat up.

"Well," he mumbled, "I mean, it just seems like you wouldn't be trying so hard or be so upset if that was all. And then there was that healing stuff so…" He trailed off, not sure he was making any sense anymore. Across from him, Kaysa laughed and leaned forward, walking her hands across the distance between them to slap him on the shoulder.

"Well met!" she told him, grinning. Sirius grinned back; her touching him hadn't done anything to relieve his blush, but he was glad she seemed to have understood. "You're right; there is more to it."

"What healing stuff?" asked Remus.

"I was just getting to that," said Kaysa. "Remember we told you our people have our own kind of magic? Well, it's true; Chi and me, we belong to one of two subsets of our kind. We're Greens, we're natural healers. The other subset, the Blues, their power tends to be a bit stronger, but it's more generalized. They're not usually as good at delicate work."

"Kaysa," said Chitral, "I think you're leaving out key bits of information here."

"It's not my fault!" said Kaysa. "I didn't think we'd have to explain this so soon. But then this one had to go and work it all out." She pointed at Remus who grinned at her.

"Isn't that better though?" he asked. "I mean, this way you haven't had time to work out better lies."

Kaysa glowered at him. "Maybe, but it also means I haven't had time to work out how best to explain this without giving you the worst kind of headache."

Remus shrugged.

"Just try," he said. "Maybe you should tell us about what kind of magic it is that your people have, exactly."

Kaysa sighed and rubbed her temples.

"Okay," she said, "but this is the headache part."

"I consider myself warned," said Remus mildly.

"Maybe, to understand about how we are, they should know about why we are," Chitral suggested quickly before her cousin could snap back. Kaysa considered this for a moment, then she reached over and refilled Sirius's glass of water.

"Drink," she told him almost absently. Then she turned to her cousin. "I suppose that makes sense. But it will mean going though an awful lot of history. I'm nor sure we have time."

"Do it anyway," said Chitral resignedly. "If we miss class, we miss class. They need to know."

Kaysa nodded and turned back to the boys.

"Okay," she said, "so I'm going to try and set this all out for you. I'm not sure how good a job I'll do, but please be patient. If you have questions that's fine, but it might be better if you'd hold them til I finish since I might answer them as I go along. If something really doesn't make sense, then you can interrupt, but I'd rather not get too off topic, okay?"

Sirius nodded. So did James and Peter. Remus frowned.

"Okay," he said, "but what did you mean about why you are?"

Kaysa sighed and looked at him.

"Didn't I just say I'd explain?" she asked. Remus looked down and mumbled an apology. Kaysa nodded acknowledgement, then began.

"Our people are strange. Most life forms exist simply because they do. They were a successful evolutionary step or whatever. Us though, we have a specific purpose, a duty, one we were created for. To understand this purpose, you must first understand something of how things were before, when the universe, the cosmos, even, was still relatively new.

"At first, you see," she continued, leaning back against the wall, "travel between worlds was easy. The fabric of the cosmos was all mushed together. The universe is always expanding, you know, but at first things were still wrinkled up. These wrinkles made for sort of doors, passages across space that would otherwise be quite far. Mostly, these passages only went through space, but a few managed to twist back on themselves and traverse through time as well. Then, too, by the time your species had been around long enough to realize that these portals actually went to places so far away, to other worlds, the universe had been around long enough that some of the oldest stars were dying and collapsing into black holes.

"Do you know about black holes?" she asked them, pausing.

"Some," said Sirius, whose family was kind of big on astronomy, especially since nearly all the family names came from the stars. "Aren't they really strong or something? Like, they suck stuff in and it can't get back out?"

"Something like that," said Kaysa. "Um, here." And she opened her mind to them and gave them all a crash course in something she thought of as physio-relational sciences and which Chitral, taking pity on them, told them Muggles just called physics. By the time she was done, Sirius's head was spinning again. He thought he understood the key concepts, though. Heavier stuff, stuff with greater mass or density, had more gravity. Black holes, which had a ton of matter packed into a relatively tiny space, had a huge amount of gravity. So much that it messed up the fabric of space and time. Therefore, if you were traveling through one of the space wrinkles and passed too close to a black hole, sometimes you came through time as well.

"See," said Kaysa, "back then, humankind wasn't really old enough to understand that time is dangerous to mess about with. Do it wrong and you could change your own history. Plus, there's some stuff that's just meant to happen. It was dangerous, for everyone, with all the ways open. So our people were created. We are the Great Shifters. We can traverse time and space at will, move between different worlds, different realities. Our job is to guard time against those who would meddle with it, whether they know what they do or not. Many years ago, our ancestors closed the ways to those who were not Shifters, but there are still ways to travel through time.

"But that's sort of another matter. Anyway, the reason we weren't supposed to tell you all this is because your people don't know about us. Earth is a restricted planet. We're not allowed. We're not supposed to meddle and we're not supposed to risk people finding a way to control us before they understand the magnitude of what they could do. If the Council — which is sort of the closest thing to government we have — ever found out we'd told you, they'd make us go back to the Homeworld and they'd erase your memories. At best. I mean, they'd probably be pretty pissed. We sort of went around them to come here. I mean, we sort of have special permission, but I don't think Trig would have told them.

"Anyway, like I said, we're Greens, we're healers. We can travel time and space, we're telepaths, and we're shapeshifters. And we have to follow a bunch of really annoying rules that basically say we can't actually do much because it might interfere with time and all." She checked her watch. "And we have about ten minutes before we're late for class. Any questions that just can't wait?"

Sirius stared at her. He was sure there were a million questions he should ask, but he couldn't actually think of any just now. Well, it was a lot to take in.

"Er," said Remus, "so I assume we can't tell anyone any of this."

"Of course not," said Kaysa.

"Okay, so then — wait a second, what are you?"

"Well that's just insulting," said Chitral. "We're girls. What's it look like?"

"That's not what I meant," Remus protested.

"We know," said Kaysa, waving a hand at him. "It's just, what do you need a name for? It's not like it'll change anything."

"I know that," said Remus, shrugging. "I just want to know. Then I know what to think of you as."

Kaysa grimaced. "We're called Eyians. Chi and me are Green Eyes, and our cousins are Blue Eyes. Don't look at me like that!" she added acidly as the boys sniggered. "Your people came up with the names, not mine!"

"I though you said your people had never been here," said Sirius.

"I meant humans in general. Earth doesn't have a monopoly on them. Humans are everywhere," said Kaysa. "Anyway, they came up with the name. It's stupid, I know, but our word for ourselves was unpronounceable to human vocal cords and it just meant 'The People' anyway, so you couldn't really translate it and make it a name. People just started calling us by how they recognized us. All Greens look basically like us, same with the Blues, though they have a bit more variety in hair color."

"Anyway," said Chitral, "by the time we realized we really needed a better name for ourselves, it was too late. That was just what people called us. So we're stuck with it."

"Okay," said James, "I guess that makes sense." He stretched and started to stand up. "Shall we get going then?"

"No, wait," said Remus. He was looking at Kaysa and Chitral with a strange expression. "There's something you two should know. About me."

Sirius heard Peter gasp quietly. James dropped back down beside him, startled.

"Remus, are you sure about this?" he asked.

Remus nodded. He looked a bit scared, but determined.

"They trusted us," he pointed out then he took a deep breath and faced the girls. "I'm not a normal human," he said. "I'm a werewolf."

"Okay," said Kaysa after a moment, seeming to realize that he expected some kind of response.

"'Okay'?" echoed Remus. "I turn into a monster once a month and that's all you have to say? 'Okay'?"

"Shapeshifters, remember?" said Kaysa grinning. "Why would we be thrown by adding one more to the mix?"

"You already knew, didn't you?" said Remus eyeing them shrewdly.

"Well, yes," Chitral admitted. "But I'm glad you trusted us enough to tell us yourself. Thank you."

Remus blinked, evidently not sure what to say to that.

"Um, your welcome, I think. But I think you must have missed something… You do understand what it is to be a werewolf, right?"

"Of course," said Kaysa. "I mean, granted we don't know what type you are, but we get it. Full moon equals a really bad hair day for you."

"But, I mean I'm — I'm not — " Remus sputtered.

"Not what? Not really human?" Kaysa guessed. "Don't be stupid. Of course you're human. It's your original form."

"What?"

"You were born human, right?" said Kaysa. Remus nodded. "And then you were bitten?" Nod. "Then you're human," said the girl simply. "Most werewolf-ism is less an actual species and more a sort of medical condition."

Remus looked startled, but rather pleased by this new way of looking at it. Then he frowned.

"There are other kinds of werewolves?" he asked.

"Of course," said Kaysa, as though this should be obvious. "I mean, the universe might be infinite, but the possibilities for life aren't."

"Shouldn't they be?" said Remus.

"No, it's limited by its purpose."

"Oh," said Remus, frowning again. So was Sirius; he didn't follow this at all. Then Kaysa's mind opened to them again. In her mind, he saw a series of complex equations and mathematical concepts. He concentrated; the equations might be beyond him (there were letters in them!) the concepts he thought he might be able to grasp if he could just work it through.

Okay, so the universe was infinite. That was simple enough. And therefore it made sense that you would get different kinds of life, okay. But 'limited by its purpose?' What was that about?

And then something clicked into place in his head and he saw that she didn't mean the purpose like when people asked 'What's the point?' She meant the actual natural purpose or requirements of life. Which was to keep going, right? So that meant procreation, which, after a certain amount of brain power was achieved, would mean things like the ability to communicate, and to move and find food, shelter, water, and so on. And surely there were only so many ways to do this effectively. Okay, so limited.

Oh! He got it. It was like throwing a dice. Albeit, a dice with a hell of a lot more sides than any Sirius had ever seen before, but still, as long as the dice had a set number of sides then if you rolled it an infinite number of times surely eventually you'd roll the same side. Things would repeat. It was inevitable. He understood!

"Ow!" James complained. "Could you be triumphant a little less noisily?"

"What?" said Sirius, staring around at his friends. Then he realized they'd been following along with him. He must have done the mental equivalent of shouting. "Oh, sorry. So, there's more than one of everything?"

"'Cept for us, yeah," said Kaysa. "At least, as far as we know. It's not exactly as if anyone's actually seen the whole cosmos, you know."

"Are they dangerous too?"

"Huh?" said Kaysa looking blankly at Remus.

"The other werewolves," said Remus, "are they dangerous too?"

"Oh," said Kaysa, "yeah, not all, but most are. I mean, human mind to wolf brain transition… not really easy to deal with."

Remus actually laughed. "No kidding," he said.

"Um, sorry, hate to interrupt this, but can we get to class now?" asked Chitral. "I like Professor Kettleburn. I don't want him to be angry with us. We can talk more about all this later, right?"

"Will you still be answering questions later?" asked James.

"Of course we will," scoffed Chitral, "you already know all the stuff we weren't supposed to tell you. Why stop now? I mean, if you're going to hell, you might as well do it proper."

Everyone laughed at that.

"Yeah, okay," said James, getting up and leading the way out. The others all stood and followed him, most thinking their own private thoughts. Sirius moved to walk next to Kaysa.

"So," he said, "what are your original forms? You never did say."

"Oh yeah," said Kaysa. "We're lions."

Sirius digested this.

"Cool," he told her.

It was not until that night that the full truth of what she'd said really him. Lying awake in his dormitory, listening to the sounds of his year-mates sleeping, however, a thought suddenly hit him.

"James," he called. "Hey, James? You awake?"

"I am now," said James grumpily. "What'd'you want? It's the middle of the night, mate."

"I just realized something."

"What?"

"Well, they're not from here, right? The girls, I mean."

"Yeah, so?"

"So," said Sirius slowly, "I've been crushing on an alien for the last three weeks."

Silence, then, "Yep."

"That's all?"

"You got a problem with it?" James asked mildly.

Sirius thought for a moment. "Nope."

"Good, then go to sleep."

In the dark, Sirius grinned and closed his eyes.

* * *

A/N: um... sorry, i forgot to warn you how much theory would turn up in this chap... hope i didn't bore anyone stupid... in case you couldn't tell, i like theory. i like to think about it, play with it, invent it, etc. but these are just my theories. if anyone else out there also likes theory and has one/some they'd like to share, i'd love to hear about it. seriously; the whole 'abstract concept' thing, i love it! (i know, i know: i'm such a nerd XD)

anyway, please, share with me your thoughts, your theories, your suggestions, whatever, i'm totally open ^_^

~SilverKit'sFire


	11. Christmas part 1  Plots

disclaimer: HP and it's characters are not mine, just Kaysa, Chitral and a few others by necessity

A/N: hey, so I'm really sorry this took so long to get up. First my computer broke so I couldn't work on it and then I had exams plus tons of homework. but I've been working on it when I can and so here's the next chapter! also you should know that I feel that this is going to be a pretty long chapter so I'm just going to post it in sections so I don't overwhelm you with length or whatever (I've heard that can be a problem sometimes…). Anyway, here's what I have so far. Please read, enjoy, and let me know what you think ^^

* * *

_**Christmas**_

_**(Plots)**_

"Oh, come on, Kaysa. This should be the easiest assignment in the world for you. What do you need it looked over for?"

"You know I can't risk having any of my people's knowledge in there! I have to make sure this is one hundred percent wizard's stuff."

"Okay, fine. I'll look this over, you go practice. Here, turn these buttons into beetles."

"Slave driver," Kaysa muttered mutinously. "Does he do this to you too?"

Sirius, for whom the question was meant, sniffed primly.

"I do not need tutoring," he informed her loftily. "I get excellent grades." Then he ducked fast as Kaysa took a swipe at him. Kaysa pulled out her wand and brandished it at him.

"Are you offering me cheek, Sirius Black?" she demanded.

"Nah, I'm just giving it," said Sirius, laughing. He knew she would never actually hurt him. In the last month and a half, as he'd gotten to know her better and better, somewhere along the line, she'd gone from being the pretty, untouchable girl he daydreamed about to the quick-tempered, playful girl he considered to be a true friend. He wasn't quite sure when this change in his feelings had occurred, but he was glad about it. It made things much easier. And besides, he liked being her friend. It meant he got to do things like this:

Swiftly, he reached out a hand and snatched her wand away from her. Kaysa made a strange noise like a squawk and leapt at him. Sirius jumped up onto the table, pulling out his own wand and muttering, _"Wingardium Leviosar." _As Kaysa vaulted up beside him, he sent her wand up and out to hover just a few feet beyond her reach. She leapt, reaching for it only to land on the floor again as Sirius twitched his hand. She leapt again, her hands stretching up futilely.

James was laughing. Remus and Peter, distracted from their own homework, cheered, telling Kaysa to try harder or Sirius to make her jump higher. Chitral, sitting by the fire with a book open on her lap, laughed too at first, but then started watching the wand intently as Sirius made it jump about in the air. Sirius grinned; they'd discovered this game a week ago when James, bored of homework, had made the quill Remus had been using fly out of his hand and zoom around the common room. As it had zoomed by Kaysa's head however, she'd looked up, watched for a second, and then pounced, pinning the quill to the ground as it came by her a second time. She hadn't even really been aware of what she was doing. It was instinctual, she'd told them later, after all, she was a cat at heart.

Now, as Sirius floated Kaysa's wand up all the way to the ceiling, Kaysa invented a new way to play. Evidently fed up with chasing the wand, she jumped on Sirius instead, knocking him off the table and onto the floor where she wrestled his wand away and summoned hers back.

"Get off, would ya?" said Sirius, sprawled on his belly with Kaysa sitting on his back. "This is not comfortable."

"Are you saying I weigh too much?" Kaysa demanded, thwacking him on the head with his own wand.

"Ouch! No," said Sirius, "but your arse sure is bony. Get off!"

Instead, she somehow managed to sit even harder on him. His breath went out of him with a WHUFF.

"Help me with Transfiguration?" she asked sweetly.

"Yeah, okay, okay. Can't. Breath. Kays." She got off and he gasped in air for dramatic effect. Kaysa snorted and told him he was pathetic. He just laughed.

"I still get better grades than you," he teased.

"Hmph," said Kaysa, "Only because you don't know a shit-ton of other stuff that keeps getting in the way."

"Kaysa!" Chitral protested. "Language. Their ears are burning."

"Oh la," said Kaysa, "Like they haven't heard worse."

"Yeah," agreed James, "and mostly from you."

Sirius grinned as he went to sit and watch Kaysa practice transfiguring buttons and help if he could. Kaysa did swear a lot sometimes. It was only sometimes, though, because most of the time her now very extensive vocabulary usually sufficed. Her frustration with her inability to manage transfiguration, however, was one of the few things were it either didn't suffice, or just wasn't satisfying enough. Watching her, Sirius sighed. It wasn't even as though she was doing anything discernibly wrong. Her pronunciation was good, her wand movements were fine too, she just didn't seem to be able to get out of her own way.

"You know," he said, as Kaysa concentrated on her buttons, "it is Professor McGonagall. You said she knows about you two. Why not just hand in an essay with some of your own people's views on things. It's not like she'd freak, and then maybe she could help you better."

"You're joking, right?" said Kaysa glowering at the buttons. "This is Professor McGonagall we're talking about. If I give her a paper that she not only can't make heads nor tails of, but isn't even on the assigned subject, she'll fail me. I'm supposed to be learning Transfiguration from her, not pointing out to her all the problems of shape-changing due to retained essences."

"Because of what?" said James, looking up.

"Retained essences," said Kaysa. "Take these buttons for example. They know they are buttons, that they're supposed to be buttons. Of course they don't want to be beetles. And I shouldn't make them be."

"But you can change _your_ shape," Remus pointed out. "It doesn't seem to bother _you_."

"Yes, but we're born shapeshifters," said Chitral. "We're meant to be able to handle it. It's built in to our essences. And, Kaysa, you're getting too hung up on the details. It'd work if you'd just relax and let it."

"I've tried that, Little Miss This-Is-Just-How-It-Is-Here-So-It-Doesn't-Really-Matter," Kaysa snapped. "And it does matter and it doesn't work!"

"Well, keep trying anyway," said Chitral shrugging. Kaysa glared at her, but Chitral ignored her and turned to James. "Are you staying here for the holidays?" she asked.

"Staying?" echoed James. "Why would I be staying?"

"Oh," said Chitral quickly, "no reason, I guess. I just wondered…"

"Ha!" said Kaysa, still glowering at her pile of buttons. "She just hoped we'd finally have some company for once, that's all."

"What do you mean?" said James looking confused. "Don't you two go home for Christmas?"

"Of course not, numbskull," Kaysa snarled. "I mean, what would we say? 'Hi, everyone! We've just come from one of the restricted planets. We're on vacation just now and we have to go back soon but we'd thought we'd just pop in to say hello anyway!' Yeah right. That'd go over real well."

Sirius blinked and looked at James. His friend seemed equally taken aback by Kaysa's sudden anger.

"Oh, shut it, Kaysa! It's not his fault we can't go home," Chitral snapped. "We chose this, remember?"

"I know that!" Kaysa snapped right back, "I just didn't realize we'd be alone for all the major holidays, that's all!"

Sirius frowned. "You mean you stay here alone every year?"

Both girls nodded glumly.

"We can't risk going home," said Kaysa quietly. "If someone found out — guessed or something — we'd never be allowed to come back."

"But — but it's Christmas!" said Peter. He looked shocked. "It's a time for family."

"We know that," said Kaysa morosely. She seemed to have run out of anger. She plopped down on the floor by the table. Cahi, who seemed to swing back and forth between being the most well-behaved and the most independent two-month-old ever, yipped in distress and leapt off the table where she'd put him and into her lap. Kaysa trailed her fingers distractedly though his fur. "Our people have our own solstice festivities. But we can't go back."

"We haven't seen any of our family for the last two and a half years," added Chitral. "I haven't heard from my parents or my sister…"

Oh, thought Sirius, no wonder they were upset. Kaysa and Chitral didn't talk about home a whole lot, at least, not specifically, but they had explained about various parts of their culture and Sirius and his friends knew that for them — for their people — nothing in the world was as important as family.

"We don't even know if Takamburry got recruited by the military," said Kaysa.

"You have a military?" said Remus, sounding startled.

"Not much of one," said Kaysa, momentarily distracted. "I mean, we're not supposed to interfere, but sometimes… Anyway, Takam was always a talented fighter."

"Yeah," said Chitral, "but I don't think war is in his personality."

"Mnh," mused Kaysa.

Sirius frowned, thinking. He wasn't exactly thrilled to go home for the holidays. In fact, these days, he wasn't actually thrilled to go home period. It meant dealing with his father's silent but oppressive disapproval (at least, whenever the man was home) as well as his mother's, which was much more vocal. Going home meant being a disappointment.

"I'll stay," he said.

"What?" said Chitral, looking at him. "Don't you want to spend time with your family?"

"Yeah, you don't have to," said Kaysa.

"I don't mind," said Sirius. "It'll be better than spending the entire holiday with my kid brother."

"What, Regulus?" said Chitral, "But he's cute."

"He's a twerp," said Sirius. "And he's a Slytherin. Seriously, I don't mind. I'd love to stay. We'll have fun."

"I'll stay too," Peter said suddenly. "My mom and my grandmother keep trying to teach me things like cooking and knitting. I'd rather stay here than deal with that."

"Well, I can't let you two have all the fun," said James. "I'll write home and see if I can stay too. We'll have the whole common room to ourselves, you realize that? Practically the whole castle! Just think what we could do!"

"Yeah!" said Sirius, catching James's enthusiasm. "What about you, Remus?"

"You guys, you don't have to do this," Kaysa protested. "We'll be fine. Really. Go spend time with your families." But James had now found his next great ambition.

"No way!" he said. "We could have so much fun. We could find all the secret passageways and maybe sneak into some of the other House's common rooms…"

"We could set up traps for returning students!" suggested Sirius eagerly. "And who knows? Maybe some of the teachers go home for the holidays. Maybe we could check out their offices or something."

"Oh dear," said Remus, raising his eyebrows. "Well, if you're already planning such things, I guess I'd better stay. Someone needs to keep you from getting into too much trouble."

"But—" started Chitral.

"Guys—" Kaysa tried again.

"Nuh-uh," said James, shaking a finger at them both. "We've decided. We're staying!"

Kaysa and Chitral exchanged a look.

"Okay, I guess," Kaysa muttered, looking at the floor. "If that's what you want…"

"Thanks, guys," said Chitral quietly. "We really appreciate it."

Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter all smiled.

"Hey, we're friends, right?" said James.

Convincing their parents was pretty easy, really. All any of them had to do was write home and either make some excuse or else just explain that they wanted to stay and keep some friends who couldn't go home this time company. All except Sirius, anyway. He suspected that his parents probably wouldn't mind not having him at home for the holidays, but just in case he wasn't about to give them the option of not giving permission so he didn't bother asking for it. Instead he simply wrote home informing them that he was staying at Hogwarts and he'd see them the coming summer. Neither Kaysa nor Chitral really said much on the subject, but Sirius could tell that they were touched. They also seemed surprised which made Sirius wonder just how important family was in their culture. After all, to him it didn't seem so strange to spend the holidays with friends instead of family. It wasn't that family wasn't important, but friends were important too. There again though, he supposed he might be somewhat more lax about it given his own home situation. Even so, though, it was something to think about.

James was excited. In fact, Sirius didn't think he'd seen his friend this excited about anything since that time in first year when they'd been planning to sneak into the Forbidden Forest. His excitement was catching too. There were still a few days til the holidays began but for Sirius and the others, they couldn't come fast enough. They couldn't wait to have the whole castle practically to themselves.

Kaysa wanted to play Sardines. James protested that this would be unfair; Peter would always find the best hiding spots. Sirius liked Chitral's idea about making the castle grounds into a kind of obstacle course for broomsticks, so did James and Kaysa, but they both thought that doing it outside would be too easy so why not do it inside. Remus tried to argue that this would get them into way too much trouble, but by that time, the others were far too taken with the idea so the indoor flying obstacle course race had made the list of things almost certain to happen. So had a trip to Hogsmeade, though they weren't sure yet if they would be able to get permission to go or if they would have to sneak out somehow. This presented them with something of a problem because none of the boys, not even Peter, knew of a way to do this and they wanted it to be a surprise for the girls.

"There must be a way," James insisted the evening before break began. Kaysa and Chitral were spending their time with Lily and Heather since they wouldn't see them for about three weeks. "I mean, there's a tunnel to the Shrieking Shack, right?"

"Well, yes," said Remus dubiously, "but the whole point of the Shrieking Shack is that that tunnel is the only way in or out. It's not really going to help us any, is it?"

"Well, no, not that one specifically," said James, "but I meant if there's that tunnel then there ought to be others, right?"

"Don't be thick, James," said Sirius, rolling his eyes. "Remus means that the tunnel was built special. That means that there's no guarantee of there being any secret ways into the village. Right, Remus?"

Remus nodded and James groaned slightly.

"Oh, come on, don't be such kill-joys," he chided them. "This castle is full of secret passages and stuff. There's bound to be a way into Hogsmeade, we just have to find it, that's all. Anyway, we have to find a way. I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet."

"True," mumble Sirius around a mouthful of roast chicken. The one down side to staying was that, since none of them had planned ahead for it, none of them had done any shopping yet, having just assumed they would have time at home. Now they weren't going home and were faced with the prospect of having to make their own time for shopping. But Sirius had another reason for wanting to find a way into Hogsmeade. Kaysa had mentioned at some point that, while her people did have a winter solstice holiday, they did not have a New Years celebration of any kind. She and Chitral had never celebrated New Years before, not even here. As far as Sirius was concerned this was a travesty in need of immediate remedy. Which is to say it was the perfect excuse to set off a boatload of fireworks. And he could only get said boatload of fireworks in Hogsmeade. Well, he'd better just hope that James was right, was all then.

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

"I can't wait to see Tuney! I wonder if she's learning as much fun stuff as we are. I mean, she always complains about school and all, but if I ask right she's usually happy to show off what she knows so it can't be that bad, right?"

Kaysa chuckled. She and Chitral were sprawled out on Lily's bed while Lily and Heather all packed up for the holidays. Lily seemed both eager and nervous about going home again, a side effect, Kaysa supposed, of being the only magic-user in a family.

"Oh?" said Heather, flinging clothes randomly into her trunk. "I thought you two were on the outs again."

"Huh?" said Chitral frowning. Kaysa frowned too; why would the two be fighting? Lily talked about her sister all the time.

Lily sighed. "She hates me because I'm a witch," she said, tracing a finger around the binding of _A Standard Book of Spells, Grade Three._ "But she's my sister. She's got to let it go eventually. We used to share everything."

"Oh," said Kaysa quietly, understanding. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be silly, it's not your fault," said Lily, startled. "Anyway, I'll keep trying. We're family after all. She can't possible hold it against me forever, right?"

"Right," said Heather quickly, smiling encouragingly at Lily. "I mean, my brother and I fight all the time but we always make up eventually."

"Yeah," said Kaysa slowly, not wanting to upset her friend, but also not wanting her to get false hope, "but if she's really jealous, well, it might take a while, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess," said Lily, her brows knitting, then she smiled and shrugged. "Oh well. I can wait. And I will keep trying. Like I said, she's family. Anyway, what about you two? What are you doing for Christmas?"

"Oh, we're staying here," said Chitral. "Our homes are too far away for us to go back."

"What? Really?" Lily seemed surprised by this. Kaysa wondered if maybe they should have asked the boys for help coming up with excuses, but there hadn't really been time and anyway, they hadn't thought of it. "Why didn't you say something? I could have asked my parents if you could come stay with us."

"Oh," said Kaysa. Now it was her turn to be surprised. "Well, um, thanks. I guess. Um, I didn't even think of that, I suppose. But I wouldn't want to intrude anyway. Don't worry about us, we'll be fine."

"Yeah, and besides, we're not the only ones staying here this year," Chitral put in.

"Really?" said Lily. "Who else is staying?"

Chitral opened her mouth, but Kaysa deliberately moved to jostle her. It wasn't that it really mattered or anything, but their friendship with James and Sirius and crowd was still a minor point of contention with Lily, who just couldn't understand why they would want to hang out with such arrogant jerks, and Kaysa really didn't feel like getting into another almost argument about it just now.

"Oh, just a few here and there," she said, ignoring the look Chitral shot her.

_You did that on purpose! _her cousin accused silently.

_Of course I did, _Kaysa replied. _You know how she feels about the boys. Why start it up again?_

"Some from our house, I think," she said out loud, "and then I think a few Ravenclaws and maybe an older Hufflepuff or two? I'm not really sure. But we'll be fine, I promise."

Lily frowned at them for a moment, then said, "Okay, if you're sure. But if you ever want to come stay with me just let me know. I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind."

_Between you and me, _Chitral sent, _I'd sooner just ask James or Remus, you know?_

_Yeah, _Kaysa replied with a mental sort of snort, _because that would just be so appropriate, us girls staying over at a boy's house._

_Ha! _Chitral retorted. _What do you care? We used to stay over at Wolf and Sierra's all the time!_

_That was at home, _Kaysa pointed out. _Besides, I didn't mean me, I meant their parents._

_Oh yeah…_

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

"Ah, freedom! Feels so good."

Sirius grinned across the table at James. It was their first day of vacation and they were eating breakfast at eleven thirty.

"Sure does," he agreed snagging a few more pieces of bacon. A soft whine and a small paw on his leg made him look down. Cahiran looked back up at him with soulful brown eyes. Rolling his own eyes, Sirius tore off a small piece of bacon and offered it to the young kitsune, who wolfed it down happily.

"Don't do that!" Kaysa scolded from beside James. "Honestly, it's no wonder I can't get him to stop begging what with you lot always feeding him."

"Oh, lay off, Kaysa," said James as Cahi trotted over to him beneath the table and made puppy-dog eyes at him next. "I mean, he doesn't bite anymore and he's all house-trained and all so what's the problem? Besides," he added, slipping the kit some of his own food, "who could resist this face?"

Chitral giggled as Kaysa frowned. "He is pretty cute still," she said, reaching over to scratch Cahi's head. Kaysa sighed.

"It's rude, that's the problem," she said grabbing her charge with one hand and placing him on the bench in between her and James. "If I don't teach him manners now it'll just get worse. Now stop that," she added, eyeing the kitsune sternly. "It's not like I don't feed you, you know. Actually, you probably eat better than any others of your kind. You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

Cahi looked from her face to her plate and back again. Kaysa narrowed her eyes at him. Evidently realizing that this was not an issue up for discussion the kitsune yawned and settled down on the bench, curling his tails around his nose.

"Babies," Kaysa muttered, turning back to her breakfast.

"He's getting pretty big for a baby," Sirius commented. It was true too; Cahiran was now about three months old and he had gone from being about the size of a kitten to something more like a small adult cat or a rather large and long-legged Chihuahua, though he hadn't quite reached the awkward adolescent stage yet.

"How big is he going to get?" asked Remus curiously.

"Honestly, I don't know," Kaysa replied. "Kettleburn says they tend to be bigger than normal foxes, but I'm not sure by how much."

"Guess we'll just have to wait and see," said Chitral. "Anyway, what's on for today? Christmas is only a week away and I need to do some shopping."

"Yeah, us too," said Peter, "But we don't know how to get to the village — not without permission, anyway."

"What? Seriously?" said Kaysa, looking around at them all. "You mean you haven't found it yet?"

"Found what?" asked Remus.

"Oh my gosh," said Kaysa; she sounded weirdly excited about something. "I can't believe this. You guys seriously haven't — I mean —"

"Hey!" snapped James, "Stop gloating. If you know a way into Hogsmeade then just say so already."

"Wait, what? You guys have a way in? And you never told us?" said Sirius indignantly; he was mildly offended by this.

"We assumed you'd know," Chitral explained as Kaysa grinned hugely. "There's a tunnel that leads to the basement of Honeydukes. It's —"

"Chitral!" Kaysa protested, "Can't you at least let me savor the moment a little? I mean, how often is there anything we know about this place that they don't?"

Chitral rolled her eyes. "James is right, you gloat too much. It's hidden in that statue of Gunhilda of Gorsemoor."

"Who?" said James and Sirius together.

"Where?" Peter demanded. "How come I've never found it?"

"We can show you," said Chitral.

"You ruin my fun," said Kaysa, pouting theatrically.

"Oh quit complaining," said Chitral snatching the last piece of bacon before James could grab it. "We've got weeks of fun ahead of us. You can manage."

"Hey! I was going to eat that," said James, meaning the bacon. Chitral just stuck her tongue out at him before stuffing the bacon into her mouth, crunching loudly.

"Consider it payment for showing you the way to Hogsmeade," she said grinning.

"Hmph!" said James. "Kaysa's not the only one who gloats too much."

Chitral made a noise of indignation but Kaysa just laughed.

"Well she is my cousin," she said. "What do you expect? Anyway, you guys can help us out with the statue. We've only ever used that passage coming back so we don't know how to open it from this end. Probably a password of some kind, but for that we'd more familiarity with your languages."

"Yeah, okay," said James agreeably, scanning the table to see if there was any bacon left hiding somewhere.

"Wait a minute," said Remus, looking puzzled. "If you've only ever used this tunnel coming back, then, well, I mean how does that work? What's the point? And wouldn't Filch notice if you left and didn't come back?"

"Probably, but we just use it for bringing stuff back to the castle that he probably wouldn't allow us to have if he knew," Chitral explained. "We'd both come through the tunnel with our booty during the Hogsmeade trips, then one of us would slip out and stash it back in Gryffindor tower. Then the other one of us would open the passage from the inside when whichever of us left came back. After that we would just have to get back to the village in time to come back the normal way with everyone else and Filch never noticed a thing."

All four boys stared her for a moment, stunned by this level of planning. Finally James said, "You know, you'd think we'd be getting used to this by now…"

"Used to what?" asked Kaysa, looking at him in confusion.

"You guys," said James. "The way your minds work — all twisty and stuff, you know?"

Kaysa and Chitral exchanged mystified glances then shrugged. Sirius rolled his eyes; the girls rarely seemed to understand that that level of thinking and planning wasn't really normal and he and his friends had mostly given up trying to explain it to them. Chalk it up to cultural differences.

"Whatever," he said. "Tell us about the entrance to this tunnel."

"Does it matter?" Chitral wanted to know. "I mean, it's an entrance. It opens, right?"

"Well, yes," said Remus, "but knowing how it works might help us to figure out the password. Like, if it just opens then we might just need a word that means 'open' or something simple like that, but if it goes up or down or something then we'd probably need something different."

"Hmm," Kaysa mused, "passwords as a function of logic. Sensible, but not very practical. Not if what you want is for the thing to stay secret, anyway. Shouldn't it be more arbitrary so it's harder to guess, like the passwords for getting into the common rooms?"

"Interesting point," said Remus. "I'd never thought of it that way." He frowned for a moment then shrugged. "I suppose for secret passageways it's different. I mean, they were probably originally built as emergency escape routes or something so I guess it makes sense that the passwords would be more logical. After all, what good is an escape route if you can't use it?"

"Hnh, I guess that makes sense," said Kaysa, her brows still furrowed. Beside her James snorted.

"You know, you get hung up on the weirdest things," he told her. "What does it matter if it makes sense or not? Just be glad we can probably figure it out."

"But it's interesting," Kaysa protested. "I can't help it."

"We've noticed," said Sirius with dry amusement as James and Peter both laughed. Kaysa's curiosity was one of her more annoying yet somehow endearing qualities, and, for all they teased her about it, Sirius didn't actually think he'd like it if she stopped asking so many questions. It seemed crucial to her essential Kaysaness, somehow.

Kaysa planted her hands on her hips and fixed him with a stern look. "Do you want us to show you this passage?" she demanded. "Or would you rather laugh some more at my expense?"

"Oh, come on, Kaysa," Sirius cajoled her, "You know we don't mean anything buy it."

Kaysa just glowered at him.

"Oh, shut up, Sirius," said Remus rolling his eyes. "You'll have to excuse him, Kaysa, he's an idiot. Please tell us about the tunnel."

"Yes, really, Sirius," said James, his hazel eyes dancing, "at least don't insult her til after we know how to get to Hogsmeade."

Kaysa smacked his shoulder, but she was laughing. "Honestly," she said. "Not a single gentleman among you! Ah well, can't have everything, I guess. And Gunhilda's that one-eyed witch on the third floor. Her hump opens into the passage. From this end you'd have to go down before you started walking."

"Oh," said Peter. "Well, that's why I haven't found it. That statue kind of creeps me out."

"I don't blame you," Chitral muttered. "She may only have the one eye, but it bloody well watches you."

Sirius laughed; the statue had never really bothered him much, but he knew what Chitral meant. Some paintings – normal ones that didn't actually move and watch you – seemed to always be looking at you. The one-eyed witch's statue was the same. No matter where you stood in that corridor you still felt like she could see you.

"Yeah, yeah," said James, "whatever. So, we have to go down then. Okay, Remus, you're the one's who's good at this sort of thing. Do you think you can do it cold or should we spend some time in the library reading up on spells or words for downward travel?"

"Uh, I'm not sure," said Remus, frowning thoughtfully. "Er —"

"Why not just ask a house elf or something?" asked Sirius. "They probably know stuff like that, right?" He was thinking of his family's own house elf, Kreature, who probably knew more about the Black family house than anyone.

"Don't be thick," said James. "Why would a house elf know about a secret passage into Hogsmeade?"

"Maybe one of the ghosts?" Peter suggested.

"No way," said Sirius, "One of them'd just tell on us."

"Hey, I never said I couldn't do it!" said Remus, looking slightly annoyed. "It just might take a bit, that's all."

"Oh, come on, you guys," said Kaysa, "What's wrong with being a little patient and just letting Remus do his research or whatever so we can figure it out? I mean, if it's for emergency use then it can't possibly be that difficult otherwise it wouldn't be functional as an escape route, would it?"

"Good point," said Remus, looking at her. "I hadn't thought of that. You like languages. Why don't you help me out; it might go faster that way."

"Yeah, okay," Kaysa agreed, smiling at Remus and taking a gulp of pumpkin juice. "Let's go. We'll find you all later in the common room, 'kay?"

Sirius shook his head after them. "What do you bet all she really does is bombard him with questions about Latin or something the whole time?" he said, laughing. James grinned.

"Probably," he conceded. "But it gets us out of helping. I don't really feel like looking up different verb forms today, do you?"

"Nope," said Sirius.

"So," said Peter hopefully, "anyone for Exploding Snap then?"

* * *

A/N: okay, so that's what i've got so far, i'll try not to take so long about posting the next section (i'm sorry, i'm sorry!) thanks for hanging with me!

~SilverKit'sFire


	12. Christmas part 2  Ploys

Disclaimer: I own nothing. It's very sad.

A/N: sorry this took a while. I had exams plus this part bleeds into the next bit and I had to decide how I was doing it…

Also, some things you will need to know: anything in brackets [like this] is animal-speech, anything in italics _like this_ is thought-speech, and anything in normal quotes "like this" is, well, normal human speech.

Sorry bout that… anyway, please enjoy ^_^

* * *

_**Christmas**_

**_Ploys_**

"Are you sure this thing comes out in Honeydukes?" James asked as Kaysa lead the way down the tunnel with Chitral. She and Remus had only spent about an hour in the library looking up words that might work as possible passwords but it had then taken them the better part of a day to work out how to actually open the passageway – well, really, what kind of idiot mixed their languages like that? This meant that they'd had to wait til the next day for their trip, otherwise they'd only have had about an hour or two to shop around, and that didn't seem like nearly enough. Kaysa had thought that that would be the worst of their troubles, but now, leading the others and walking in an uncomfortable crouched position, James's skepticism was starting to wear on her.

"For the last time, yes," she told him. "I wouldn't bother making this stupid trip otherwise. I mean, this isn't exactly a holiday all bent over like this."

Though she'd thought she'd managed to keep the growl out of her voice, maybe she hadn't been that successful because James seemed to have finally notice her irritation.

"Sorry," he said. "It's just that this is taking so long. And I'm not very comfortable here myself."

"Yeah, well," Kaysa muttered, feeling slightly ashamed of herself, "this thing has to go to the village. I mean, it might go straighter than the roads and all, but it still has to traverse a certain amount of space. And it's hard to move that fast like this."

"We must be getting close though," said Peter, "I felt the ground start to slant up a while back."

Kaysa blinked at him; it really wasn't fair how surprised she was when he made comments like that. He wasn't stupid. She knew that. But he tended to be so quiet. And, and — well, whatever the reason it wasn't fair of her.

"Yes," she said. "We should be pretty close now."

"Wait a minute," said Sirius suddenly. "What about the people in Honeydukes? Won't they notice people suddenly showing up in their basement?"

"Good point," said James. "I mean, I brought the cloak, but we can't all fit under it for one, and you said it was a trap door so I think someone would notice if the floor just suddenly stood up for no apparent reason for another."

"Probably," said Chitral with a patience Kaysa couldn't help admiring, "but it's in the basement, remember? It's all storage boxes and stuff down there. That means if we're careful then no one will see because most likely no one will be looking."

"Alright," said Remus, "so that gets us out of this tunnel, but what about out of the basement?"

"Well, you guys will have the cloak," said Kaysa, supposing that really she should be glad that they were capable of thinking ahead. It wasn't their fault that they weren't used to accounting for shapeshifters. "And then we'll either just sneak along behind you or if it's busy we'll be cats or something til we get out."

Four pairs of eyes blinked in momentary confusion then, "Shifters. Right," Remus muttered shaking his head. "Forgot about that."

"You'll get used to it," Chitral assured him, shooting Kaysa a look. Kaysa just shrugged at her; they knew already so why hide it?

_Just because they know it doesn't mean we should quit being careful, _Chitral sent.

_I _am _being careful, _Kaysa replied, vaguely offended that her cousin thought she wasn't. _Just not with them, that's all._

Chitral simply snorted in response. Kaysa rolled her eyes. She loved her cousin, but sometimes she was just too cautious. It made having any kind of fun rather difficult. Oh well, at least for all they were learning human ways Chitral hadn't said anything about trying to emulate human social order yet. For one thing, Kaysa still wasn't too clear on how it worked most of the time, and she had a feeling that it wouldn't dictate that hers was the final word in an argument for another.

"Here we go," she whispered a minute later, climbing up to the trap door that would let them out into Honeydukes. "Keep quiet, just in case." The others all nodded their assent as she pushed gently up on the door and peered out through the crack, looking for any movement or telltale feet.

"Anything?" James hissed up at her.

"Nope," she replied. "All clear. I'll go first and hold the door. Chi, you're lookout. James, you come third with that cloak on, then the others can join you."

"Got it," said James. Kaysa pushed up on the trap door, careful not to make it squeak, and slipped out, never letting go of the door, even as Chitral slid out after her and crept off to watch and listen at the stairs. A second or two later she heard James step out onto the floor.

"Good," she said quietly, "Now try to hold the edge of that cloak over the opening so the others come up already under it."

"Yeah, nice and simple," James muttered, shuffling around as he complied. "Okay, Sirius, come on."

As the first one up after James, Sirius had a far easier time of it than the others; they really didn't fit too well all under that thing.

"Why do we have to bother with this?" Peter complained when it was his turn. "Can't we just come up and then get under the cloak?"

"Easier this way if someone comes down," Kaysa explained as patiently as she could. The door wasn't too heavy, but she was getting tired of holding it. This was taking rather longer than she'd anticipated. "Come on, Peter, you're good at small spaces and things. Just hurry up, would you?"

"I'm up already," the boy grumbled at her. "Honestly, can't you—"

"See?" Kaysa finished for him. "No, remember? That's the whole point. Alright, come on, Remus. You're last."

"I am aware of that, yes," came Remus's voice from somewhere in front of her; apparently he'd been right behind his friend. "Okay," he murmured after a moment's shuffling, "I'm set."

"Good," said Kaysa, "now just make sure that cloak doesn't get caught in the door or anything." She gave them a second to get out of the way, then closed the trap door carefully. Then she lead the way up the stairs to where Chitral was waiting for them, crouched by the door, listening carefully.

"I think we're clear," she murmured. "I haven't heard anything for the last minute or so."

"Excellent, let's—"

"Wait," James hissed suddenly. "If you two are going to be cats how will we know where to find you once we're out?"

"Oh," said Kaysa, frowning. She hadn't thought of that. "Um…"

"There's an alleyway down the street a little, over by the post office," Sirius's disembodied voice offered. "We could all meet there. That way you two could change and we could get out from under this thing without drawing any attention to ourselves."

"Good thinking," said Chitral as Kaysa nodded. "Alright then, we'll meet you there." And, closing her eyes briefly, she _shifted. _Her form rippled, blurred, then shrank, changed, and settled.

"_Prrt?" _the dainty black cat trilled quietly, looking up at them with jade-soft eyes. The boys stared; she couldn't see it, but the complete silence was telling enough. Kaysa grinned rather rakishly at them.

"You get to get the door," she told them, then _shifted_ herself.

Ah, that felt good. She'd been in that human form for so long. Stretching luxuriously, she purred and shook out her fur, loving the feel of the wood floor giving beneath her claws and the way the subtle currents of air stirred her coat. Then she glanced up and back at where she knew the boys stood. She could still smell the shock on them. Swallowing a purr of amusement she stood on her back legs and pawed at the door, mewing softly. Seriously, that was probably the only real drawback to this shape; the lack of opposable thumbs.

The air stirred, a hand appeared briefly, grasped the doorknob, twisted and pushed the door open, then vanished. Chitral slipped out the gap as soon as it was wide enough for her. Kaysa waved her tail in thanks then pelted after her cousin.

She was immediately very glad that she'd been in the sweet shop a few times before; the change of perspective from human to cat was more than a little disconcerting. Everything was so much bigger. The smells were sharper too; her nose was quite good as a human, could even be as good as any cat's if she chose, but she tended to tamp the sense down some, otherwise she got distracted by odd things and people looked at her funny. Plus there tended to be a lot of powerful smells in the castle – potions class had been especially overwhelming. Five minutes in there and her head had been spinning that first time, before she knew any better and still had her nose working at full capacity.

Ignoring the tantalizing odors of chocolate, crème, and mint than filled her nose, Kaysa dashed along the rows of shelves, locating the door outside half by memory and half by feeling for where the air moved. The door was, thankfully, a simple push-to-open door and she and Chitral managed to get through by throwing themselves at it together. They burst out into the open and were immediately hit by a gust of chilly wind. But Kaysa didn't care. It was snowing. Snowing! With a meow of delight she raced out into the street and leapt up, trying to catch the falling bits of cold fluff.

[Kaysa, stop that,] Chitral scolded her. [Come on, we need to find that alley.]

[Oh relax, would you?] Kaysa chided, leaping again and batting at the air. [Those four will take a while with that cloak on. We've got time. Come play with me.]

[No.]Chitral turned and began trotting down the street towards the post office. Kaysa flicked her ears, listening for the boys; the door's bell rang. A faint crunching of ice and salt told her that they had just exited the shop, but they were still slow. Kaysa's tail twitched indecisively. Chitral wasn't that far ahead. Oh, what the heck? Swiftly she darted forward, low to the ground, then pounced on her cousin, gripping her with all four paws and rolling them over and over. Chitral leapt up, hissing and spitting, and cuffed Kaysa on the ear. Kaysa ducked then reared up, dancing on her hind legs. Chitral took the bait and lunged for her vulnerable belly, trying to knock her over. Yowling with triumph, Kaysa half fell half launched herself forward and down onto Chitral's back, slamming her to the ground and knocking the wind from her.

[Get off!] Chitral yowled, wriggling, outraged, beneath her. Kaysa did, then raced about the street warbling, [I win, I win!]

[Oh, shut up, you mangy furball,] Chitral snapped, shaking out her coat and lashing her tail angrily. [You might have warned me.]

[Yeah, but where's the fun in that?]

Chitral whipped around and raised a paw and the games might have continued but sudden laughter made them both stop and look around. The boys had reached the alleyway and pulled off the cloak; apparently they had enjoyed the show because they were the source of the laughter.

"Does being cats always make you act ridiculous?" gasped James, leaning against the alley wall for support. "Or is it just the weather or something?"

[Oh my gosh, this is so embarrassing!] Chitral yowled, turning back to Kaysa and swiping at her. [I blame you! Our reputation is ruined and it's all your fault!]

[No it's not!] Kaysa mewed back, racing away from her cousin.

[Oh yes it is,] Chitral informed her, happily giving chase. [It's totally your fault and I'm going to catch you and you are going to pay!]

Kaysa just laughed and raced in a fast circle then tore away towards the building across the street. Chitral followed. Feeling full of herself and so very alive, Kaysa leapt at the wall of the building and launched herself off it, soaring over Chitral's head then dashing away back across the cobbles towards the boys. She heard Chitral's claws scrabble for purchase on the stone street and then the sound of light but swift moving paw-steps.

[Gotcha!] Chitral yowled, lunging forward but Kaysa put on a burst of speed.

[No! Never!] Reaching the boys she clawed her way up the first leg she came to, Remus's, she realized as she made it to his shoulder and twisted her body around so she could hiss playfully at her cousin. Good thing he'd dressed warm, too, or her claws probably would have got him. Oops.

[No fair, no fair!] Chitral complained standing and placing her front paws on Remus's shin. [No room for me.] Then she trotted over to James.

_Up! _she demanded. James blinked then reached down and picked her up.

"Which one are you?" he asked.

_Chitral, of course, _Chitral replied. _The instigator is over there._

_Oh, la! _sent Kaysa. _Don't tell me it wasn't fun._

"Hey, how are we supposed to tell the two of you apart when you're not in human form?" asked Sirius, reaching over and scratching Kaysa's ears.

_Kaysa's always bigger than me, _Chitral explained as Kaysa purred happily, leaning into his fingers.

"Should you do that?" James asked Sirius, "I mean, they're our friends."

_So? _Kaysa wanted to know. _Feels good. I don't mind._

_I don't mind either, _Chitral hinted, patting James's chin with a paw. James laughed and reached up to scratch under her chin. Chitral purred.

"Er, sorry to cut this bonding short and all," said Remus with a faint smile, "but shouldn't we get moving?"

Kaysa sighed. _Probably, _she admitted. _Alright, put us down._

"Right," she said once she and Chitral were both human again, "so we've got about an hour or so before lunch. Why don't we split up and do our Christmas shopping now, meet at the Three Broomsticks for food at, say, twelve thirty, and then we'll see where we go from there."

"Sounds like a plan to me," said James. "Three Broomsticks at twelve thirty. Right. Let's go."

By the time they all met back for lunch Kaysa had found a fuzzy blanket for Chitral, a box of very nice pastries for Peter, and a Fanged Frisbee for Sirius. She wasn't sure what to get James yet but had a feeling that she'd either know it when she saw it or, failing that, could easily ask Sirius for advice. She was also still looking for Remus's present, though he, at least, was easy; she'd get him a book.

"Oh purr," said Chitral happily as Madam Rosemerta brought them all foaming tankards of butterbeer. Kaysa couldn't have agreed more; the stuff was utterly delicious; tasting a little like butterscotch and a little like creamy sugar and served just hot enough to counter the chilly weather (and to keep one from gulping it too fast) it was the prefect thing to drink after all that shopping.

"So," said James as they all sipped contentedly and waited for their food, "did everyone get their shopping done?"

"Mine's done," said Sirius.

"Me too," said Peter. Remus was nodding. So was Chitral. Kaysa sighed.

"Not me," she admitted, "I still have one or two things I need to find."

"Oh good," said James with comic relief. "I was afraid I'd be the only we were waiting on."

Kaysa smiled at him; impulsive as he tended to be he could be weirdly thoughtful like that sometimes. There's hope for him yet, the arrogant twit, she thought fondly.

"Oh la," she told him flippantly, waving a hand, "I bet you I finish first. Then we can all come follow you around tapping our toes and asking when the real fun begins."

"Ha!" James laughed. "You haven't beaten me at anything yet, I doubt you'll start now."

A month or so ago, a comment like that would have had Kaysa's hackles up but now she just snorted.

"Only because I've been going easy on you," she retorted cheerfully. "You humans are so fragile."

"Oh, come on," said Sirius rolling his eyes, "We're not _that _breakable."

Kaysa said nothing, just sipped her butterbeer. She knew that, someday, she'd have to impress upon them just how breakable people were — far better that than the hard way, she knew; sometimes people never recovered from that — but not now. They were only thirteen. And besides, it was Christmas.

"Anyway, who've you got left?" Sirius continued. "Things might go faster if we split into two groups."

"Mnm," Kaysa agreed, swallowing a mouthful of butterbeer. "You're with me, laddybuck," she said pointing at him. "I need some advice from a fellow terror to mankind. Remus, you'd better go with James. I haven't got yours yet. The rest of you it doesn't matter."

"Thanks, Kays," said Chitral sarcastically. "I feel really loved over here."

"Oh, come on," said Kaysa rolling her eyes, "I didn't mean it like that."

"No, no, it's fine," said Peter, picking it up. "After all, _we don't matter, _do we, Chitral?"

"Peter!" Kaysa protested, but she couldn't help laughing. She loved that all her friends now were comfortable enough to tease and joke around like this.

"That's okay, guys, you matter to me," said James, grinning and putting his arms around the pair of them.

"Oh good," said Chitral, "then we'll go with you and Kaysa can go be heartless by herself."

"Hey!" said Kaysa as everyone laughed.

"It's alright, Kays, you'll still have me," said Sirius from beside her, looping an arm around her neck. "A heartless girl and terror of mankind. What a pair we'll make, eh?"

They were still laughing when Madam Rosemerta brought the food around.

"Alright, alright," said Kaysa a moment later, swallowing a large bite of her tuna sandwich, "that'll actually work out pretty well for groups. If Chi goes with you then we won't have to wander about stupidly looking for each other when we all finish."

"Yeah, okay, good thinking," said James. "If there's time afterwards we can wander around and see the sights or something."

"Or something," Kaysa agreed. Personally, she wanted to build a snow fort and then have a snowball fight. She'd seen them and they looked like fun but she'd never had a real one before, or any friends to have one with. She was sure, however, that James and the others would be up to the challenge, so that just left one question.

"Are there rules?" she asked Sirius as they headed down the street in the opposite direction as the others.

"Rules?" Sirius echoed. "For what?"

"Snowball fights. Are there rules? Well I've never played," she added as he looked at her funny. She didn't mind telling him this; she'd noticed that people tended to give her whatever she wanted if she said she'd never had it before. Not that she'd need it here. Sirius, she knew, would be happy to have any excuse to have fun and/or cause mischief.

"What?" he said loudly. "Never?"

Kaysa shook her head. "Never had anyone but Chi to play with before, remember?"

"Right, right," said Sirius, catching on immediately. "And you can't have a good snowball fight with just two people."

"Exactly," she said. "So, are there rules?"

"Not really," he told her. "Mostly you just lob snow at people and try not to get hit. No snowballs with stones or ice in though, they hurt."

"Okay, simple enough."

"Yeah," said Sirius, grinning at her. "Now, what are we looking for? You said you needed my advice on something?"

"Right," said Kaysa. "So, I've only got Remus and James left. Remus is easy – I'll just get him a book. But I'm not sure what to get for James. I mean, the obvious choice is a Zonko's product of some sort, but I know Chi already him something from there so now I'm not sure what to do."

"Ink," said Sirius.

"What?" asked Kaysa blankly. Ink? What kind of a Christmas gift was that? Maybe she'd heard him wrong.

"Ink," said Sirius again. Nope, she'd heard him right. He had definitely said to get James ink for Christmas.

"Um," she said, trying to think of a tactful way to inquire after his sanity.

"No, really," said Sirius, catching her dubious look, "there's this shelf full of magical inks in Dervish and Banges that James looks at every time we come to Hogsmeade, but he never buys any. We always end up spending all our money in Zonko's and Honeydukes and the inks are kind of expensive."

"Oh," said Kaysa, relieved now that she understood. "Okay, good. Thanks."

"Yeah, no, it's perfect," said Sirius happily. "We can go to Dervish and Banges and then there's this little bookshop just around the corner where you can get Remus's book. It's really cool, I've been meaning to show you anyway."

"Excellent," said Kaysa. "Let's go."

Sirius was right; the magical inks in Dervish and Banges were on the expensive side. Sirius offered to help pay for them if she needed it, but after two years of not having anyone to buy presents for but Chitral, Kaysa was both willing and able to splurge a bit on her friends now. She bought two bottles of ink – one of the 3D ink that Sirius suggested, and one of vanishing ink – plus a medium sized roll of good quality parchment to go with them. She was also very happy to learn that the saleswitch would gift-wrap her purchases for her for only a sickle extra, a price she was more than willing to pay; that parchment looked like it would be awkward to wrap at best. Then, wishing she'd thought to bring some kind of large bag for all these presents, she followed Sirius down the street some and around a corner to a shady looking little street and into Alexander's Used Books.

Immediately she understood why Sirius had been so keen to show her this place. It might look questionable from the outside, but once inside you forgot all about the seedy location. It was like stepping into a little piece of bookworm-heaven.

"Good, isn't it?" asked Sirius, grinning at her.

For answer, Kaysa just inhaled deeply and felt a wide smile spread across her face. Then, feeling ridiculously as though she were on some kind of grand adventure, she made her way into the stacks and began her search.

The place was amazing. Within five minutes she'd already found three books that she knew Remus would like, and she'd only gotten through one stack. Sirius helped some, perusing the shelves at random – probably more for his own enjoyment than anything else, but when he found something he thought Remus might like he'd show it to her. Kaysa quickly decided that one book might not be enough. She wanted to get him something practical, but he'd seemed interested when she and Chitral talked about home and stuff too, so maybe she'd also get him something about astronomy or ancient wizarding cultures. She wished she could give him one of the books written about or by her own people, but that would be far too risky.

Lost in though, her fingers bumped against a book that stuck out further than the rest. Kaysa stopped and looked. _Jinxes for the Jinxed _the title read. That sounded promising. She pulled it off the shelf and thumbed through it. The book was full of jinxes, counter-jinxes, and suggestions for their practical uses. Kaysa grinned; the book was prefect for anyone who ran with a group such as theirs. Tucking _Jinxes for the Jinxed _under her arm she approached the shopkeeper and asked where she might find books on astronomy that were less magical and more practical or descriptive. The man – Alexander, she presumed – sent her down an isle towards the back of the shop where she found a shelf and a half of books with pictures, sketches, and charts, both of the stars and of distance galaxies. As she sat on the floor pouring over them, trying to decide which one Remus would like best, Chitral contacted her.

_We're all done, _she sent. _We're headed to some little bookshop the boys think we'd like._

_Let me guess, Alexander's Used Books? _Kaysa replied, placing a book back on the shelf and pulling out another one to inspect.

_Yeah…_ sent Chitral, her mind-sense doing the mental equivalent of blinking in surprise._ How'd you know?_

Kaysa laughed softly at her cousin's confusion. _Sirius and me are there right now. We're done too._ Well, close enough, anyway, she amended to herself._ Then Sirius wanted to show me this place. Guess he had the same thought as the others._

_Huh, _Chitral mused, _maybe there is some truth to that expression about great minds._

_Don't let the boys catch you saying that, _Kaysa cautioned with a smile. _They're full enough of themselves as it is. They are right though; this shop is pretty cool. Come and meet us here. You can see the shop and then we can decide what to do with the rest of the day._

_Copy that, _Chitral sent, then cut the connection. Kaysa sighed – so much for her sneak attack snowball fight plans – then made her final selection and brought her two books up to the register. Handing over her money and slipping the books into the bag from Zonko's she realized she hadn't see Sirius for a while; where had he got off to?

"Sirius?" she called, wandering through the stacks looking for him. "Sirius, come on, mate, where are you?"

"Back here, Kays," he called, his voice coming from somewhere at the back of the shop.

"There's kind of a lot of 'back,'" said Kaysa, half amused, half exasperated. "Could you be a little more specific?"

"Back here," Sirius repeated, poking his dark head around a shelf all the way in the back corner. "What's up?"

"Chitral says that James is done. Everyone's on their way here now," she said, heading over towards him. "Apparently James or someone though Chi would like this place too. What's so interesting back here?"

"Nothing really," said Sirius, coming out from behind the shelves to meet her. "Just some old stuff and —" But Kaysa couldn't hear him anymore for the sudden strange ringing in her ears. She stopped walking and held very still, turning her head this way and that, trying to orient on the sound but it seemed to come from everywhere. She took another step forward then clapped her hands to her ears as the ringing only got louder, seeming to piece into her brain.

A hand on her shoulder. She looked up, saw Sirius's worried face, saw his lips form her name, but couldn't hear him. She shook her head, trying to clear it. What was going on? What was wrong with her?

Sirius grabbed hold of her arm and started dragging her towards the door. She could see his mouth moving, knew he was probably asking her what was happening, but she could only stumble along beside him, still holding her ears, trying to block out the sound.

A burst of cold air hit her squarely in the face. She blinked, then realized that Sirius had taken her outside.

"Here, sit," he instructed gruffly, pushing her onto a bench by the door. "Kaysa? Come on, Kaysa, talk to me here. What's wrong?"

"Sound," she muttered, rubbing her ears and frowning, trying to get her bearings. "There's this — or there _was _this sound…"

"Sound?" echoed Sirius. "What sound? I didn't hear anything? Look, are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," said Kaysa, brushing his hand away from her forehead. "I'm not sick, Sirius. I just… I don't know. There was this sound…"

"No there wasn't," said Sirius. He looked almost more alarmed now than before she'd said anything. "I'd have noticed, I think, if there'd been some kind of brain-crippling sound. Look, are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, no, I just —" Kaysa started, running her fingers through her hair, then stopped, realizing how little sense she was making. "Just, just give me a minute, okay? I need to think." She frowned down at her knees for a moment, then looked up at him. "Were you talking to me that whole time?"

"Yeah, I was," said Sirius seriously, "and it was freaking me out 'cause you didn't seem to hear me at all."

She hadn't. Hadn't been able to. Hadn't heard him because she'd been covering her ears. But she'd still been able to hear the ringing. Which meant that the strange, eerie sound hadn't been in the air, it had been in her head.

"Hey, I thought you guys would be inside. What are you doing out here? It's cold!"

Kaysa and Sirius looked up to see James, Remus, Peter, and Chitral walking down the street towards them, laden with parcels and bags. Kaysa opened her mouth to reply, but Sirius got there first.

"There's something wrong with her," he said, pointing at her. "We were in the shop and then suddenly she goes all still and weird and when I asked what was up it was like she couldn't hear me, wasn't even really aware of me, so I brought her out here and now she's saying there was some non-existent noise."

"I'm fine," Kaysa growled irritably as the others crowded around her. "And it wasn't a sound, really, it was in my head. Has anyone here ever had their ears suddenly start ringing? Or ever hear of it happening?"

"Oh, is that all," said James. "Yeah, that happens sometimes."

"My mum says it's a blood sugar thing," said Remus, frowning at her with mild concern.

"My blood is fine," said Kaysa skeptically. "What else causes this?"

"Sometimes if you hit your head real hard," James offered. "It happened once to me when I got hit with a bludger."

"Also not a problem," said Kaysa, grudging allowing Chitral to place a hand on her head to check her with magic. "No one hit me, and I'd heal automatically anyway."

"Nothing wrong with you that I can find," Chitral declared, pulling her magic out of Kaysa and shrugging.

"Maybe you should let Madam Pomfrey look at you when we get back to the castle," Peter suggested. Chitral bristled, offended at the idea that a human nurse might be able to find something that she, a natural healer, could not.

"No," said Kaysa firmly before an argument could ensue. The cold air was doing her good. She felt much more like herself now, and she certainly didn't need a nurse. "Look, I'm fine. It's gone now, whatever it was. If it happens again, then maybe I'll worry." When they still didn't look convinced she said, "Look, maybe Remus is right. Maybe it's this blood sugar thing. What is blood sugar, anyway?"

"No idea," said Remus. "Something to do with whether or not you've eaten, I think. Maybe."

"Well, I haven't had anything with much sugar or any blood in it," said Kaysa flatly. "And I don't see what either one has to do with my ears."

"Nevermind. If she's asking ridiculous questions she's fine," said James, rolling his eyes.

"Of course I am," said Kaysa bracingly. "Come on, Chi, you gotta see the inside of this place. It's awesome."

"Yeah, but then let's head home, okay?" said Sirius, looking at her funny. Kaysa sighed.

"Look, I appreciate the concern, laddybuck, but I'm fine, really," she told him. "So quit worrying, okay?"

"You know, they only worry because they care," said Chitral quietly as she walked into the shop with her cousin. "You shouldn't snap at them for that."

"I know, I know," said Kaysa, feeling a bit guilty. "But I hate being fussed over. You know that. Now come on, you've got to see some of these books."

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

Despite Kaysa's assurances that she was fine, Sirius couldn't' help worrying about her. Maybe he wouldn't have worried so much if she'd been a normal human – what she'd described could have been just a dizzy spell or something for a human – but he was under the distinct impression that Kaysa and Chitral's people didn't have dizzy spells, or faint, or have any health issues in general, actually. So, to him, the fact that Kaysa had had some kind of weird brain-attack was cause for concern. He could tell, however, that she didn't like having people worry and hover about her so, although he promised himself that if it happened again, or if something seemed to be wrong he'd find some way to get Madam Pomfrey to look at her or maybe tell Dumbledore or something, he did his best to hide it.

And she seemed fine, she really did, laughing and joking around with everyone as they wandered around, checking out some of the more out of the way shops, then spotting a magical creature/pet shop and insisting that they stop so she could get something for Cahi. James protested that it was silly to get an animal a Christmas present; it wasn't like they even knew what the holiday was.

"It's not for Christmas," Kaysa explained, "though that's a good idea too. But no, it's for leaving him behind today. I promised him that if he stayed in the dorm and behaved then I'd get him a treat."

Sirius had been surprised when Kaysa had elected not to take the little kit with them, after all, he went everywhere else with her, but when he'd asked about it Kaysa had laughed and said, "You're kidding, right? Can you imagine how much trouble he'd find to get into in Hogsmeade? No way am I taking him there til he's older and more obedient." So she bought him some ground beef and some dry rawhide strips to chew on instead and when they got back to the castle, Cahi seemed well pleased, especially when Kaysa mixed some of the beef grounds with honey and raw egg for his supper.

The days to Christmas Eve passed by in a haze of present wrapping and exploring every inch of the Hogwarts castle. Kaysa and James were especially into it, trying to plot the most complicated route possible for the broomstick obstacle course later. Remus was still trying to talk them out of it, or at least into doing it outside, but Kaysa said no and James said that the only way to do it outside and still have as much fun would be if the course involved every turret of the castle and the Whomping Willow and Remus finally had to let it go. Then, the day before Christmas, the sky opened up and dumped great fluffy snowflakes on them and Sirius remembered what Kaysa had said about her and Chitral never having had a proper snowball fight before. Deciding that now was as good a time as any to fix this, he suggested to his friends that they all go outside and make snowmen or something since the snow was good for packing. Then all he really had to do was wait; it was almost inevitable that someone would lob snow at someone else and sure enough they soon had a great fight going. Kaysa shrieked when one of Sirius's snowballs caught her in the side of the head. He grinned gleefully at her then ducked quick behind James as she retaliated, pelting them both with snow. By the time they called an end to the games everyone was wet, cold, and hungry and they all changed into dry clothes quickly and headed down to the Great Hall for dinner where they had the Gryffindor table all to themselves and as much food and hot chocolate and mulled cider as they could manage.

"God, I'm full," James groaned happily as they sat around the fire in the Gryffindor common room later.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, leaning back in his armchair and massaging his stomach. "I love the holidays at this place. The house elves always outdo themselves."

"I don't understand house elves," Kaysa commented from the floor where she and Chitral were sprawled by the hearth. She was lying on her back, hands behind her head, staring up at the ceiling with a bemused expression on her face. "I mean, why do they only work? It can't be much fun."

"They don' seem t' mind," mumbled Chitral sleepily. "An'way, nothing else makes much sense round here, why should this be any diff'rent?"

"Mhn." Kaysa shrugged, then rolled over and tugged on Remus's pant leg. "Tell us about Christmas?" she said. "I've read about this fat, jolly man and about the baby and the star, but I don't understand."

Remus blinked at her. "I'm not sure I really can explain those," he said. "They're mostly Muggle things. Well, the fat man is, anyway. The baby and the star I think have to do with religion."

Kaysa frowned and cocked her head at him – a difficult thing to do lying on the floor.

"There's lots of different religions here," Remus explained patiently. "And each one has its own stories and beliefs. Same goes for different cultures. My parents aren't religious so I was just taught that Christmas is a time for family, presents, and eggnog."

Kaysa frowned and looked around at the rest of them. Sirius nodded with the others; that pretty much sounded like his experience with the holiday, only his were more creepy since it was one of the few occasions that brought his whole family together.

"You know, if you're really curious, you could ask one of the Muggle-borns," he suggested. "I'm sure Neal or Lily would happy to explain it to you."

"Lily," Kaysa decided, flopping onto her back to stare at the ceiling again. "Neal's got to study for his O.W.L.s."

"Well, what about you, then?" Remus wanted to know. "You said your people have their own festivities. Why don't you tell us about them."

"Ours are for the solstice," said Chitral. "We put out all the fires and all the lights and dance and sing all night long."

"Why would you do that?" asked Sirius, knitting his brows. "The solstice is the longest, darkest night of the year. Shouldn't you have more fires?"

Kaysa shook her head. "It's traditional. So the sun will come back," she said matter-of-factly.

"Now I don't understand," Sirius told her.

Kaysa sighed. "It is one of our legends," she explained, sitting up, "from very long ago."

"You have your own mythology?" asked Remus. Kaysa and Chitral nodded. "Tell us."

Kaysa hesitated. "I'm not sure it would make much sense to you," she said.

"That's okay," said James. "Tell us anyway."

"Please," added Peter.

Kaysa looked at her cousin. Chitral smiled. "It would be good to hear one of our own tales," she said simply.

Kaysa sighed. "Very well," she said, her eyes falling shut and her voice settling into the soft lilting tones often used by storytellers. "Listen now, and I shall tell you the tale of the Long Dark."

As she spoke the others all settled in to listen; Chitral moved to sit by James's feet, resting her head against his knee, Cahi left his rawhide chew to curl up in Remus's lap. Peter leaned forward, the flames from the fire casting odd shadows on the side of his face. Sirius shifted, settling more comfortably in his armchair. Then, when all was still, Kaysa opened her eyes and began.


	13. The Long Dark

Disclaimer: This one, actually, is mine . . . Well, it was. now there's more. Sadly, I still can't make any money with it…

A/N: Yes, this is written like a mythology (well, it is mythology) and yes, I come up with weird-ass names. I'm sorry. And I know this is, like, the shortest chapter ever for me, but I felt like this should get it's own chap, though I may change my mind so if I repost this chap check to see if I've added stuff (i have now added stuff...)

Things to know for this chap (kinda like footnotes, but backwards):

*the Coming and the Great Knowing refer to the period of time where Kaysa and Chitral's people first emerged

*the Great Hunt and the Fleeing of the People refers to when mankind began to hunt magical creatures to extinctions and they sought refuge on the Homeworld

* * *

**_The Long Dark_**

"It is an old tale, from before the Coming and the Great Knowing. Perhaps even from before the Great Hunt and the Fleeing of the People. It is a tale that has been passed down from generation to generation for as far back as memory stretches. This is the tale as it was told to me:

"In the long ago times, when the world was new and life only just beginning, our Great Mother, the Creator, gave life into the trust of the Sun, saying to him, 'These are my children and you must watch over them, for they cannot survive without your light and your warmth.'

"At first, the Sun was pleased with this task, for the Creator was his Mother too, and he loved her and felt his duty as guardian of the life to be a mark of her favor. But while the Creator loves all of her children, it cannot be denied that life is among one of her greatest achievements. She loved the life, for it was always doing new and interesting things, and she spent much time just watching it to see what would happen next.

"The Sun saw this and was jealous.

'These creatures are no better than I or my siblings,' he said to himself, 'Why, without me, they could not even survive!'

"But the Great Mother continued to grant the small lives the majority of her attention. So the Sun shone out strong and hot, trying to reclaim his Mother's attention by impressing her. But the life in his care loved the sunshine, and the little creatures frolicked and rejoiced, and played many new games, and so still the Creator watched them.

"And now the Sun grew angry, hiding himself away more and more out of resentment for the creatures that were in his care. The days grew shorter and the nights longer and colder, and the People shivered, for though many of them had fur, it was not enough to keep them warm through the longer nights.

"Now, the Sun saw this and was well pleased with his power over the People. But his sister, the Moon, who is also Lady Magic, saw what he was doing and she pitied the small creatures who shivered and cried in the cold and the dark. She tried to shine for them too, like her brother, but it was a cold light, a mere shadow of the Sun's radiant light and heat. The Moon begged her brother to take pity on the People, saying that they were their siblings too and he should love them as their Mother did.

"But the Sun refused her, for he was still angry with their Mother for her love of the life. So, one night, the Moon left the sky to walk among the People, as she may do once each month. She went to the great golden jaguar, Ta'nAmyrk'sha (whose name does not really translate, but means something like 'Great Leap' or 'Flies Without Wings'), who was well know for her powerful hindquarters and her ability to jump great distances. And she said to the jaguar:

'My brother, the Sun, resents the People. He thinks that you are our Mother's favorites and so he hides himself away to punish you.'

Ta'nAmyrk'sha did not see what use this was, but she recognized the one who spoke to her, so she bowed her head respectfully and said, 'I thank you, my lady. It is good to know why we are kept so cold. But, forgive me, I do not see how this knowing helps me or my people.'

'My brother, the Sun,' said the Moon, 'holds the secret of Fire. If you were to steal it from him, you would never need to rely on him for warmth again.'

"Ta'nAmyrk'sha considered this and saw that it was true.

'And how would I steal this from him?' she asked the Lady Magic.

'You must take a great stick in your mouth and leap up to him,' the Moon told her. 'Then the stick will catch fire and the People will have its secret.'

"So Ta'nAmyrk'sha thanked the Lady Moon for her advice and went in search of a stick. She was not sure that she could make such a leap, but for the sake of her people she would try. For three days she practiced leaping, always at night so the Sun would not see and guess what she was up to. At last, on the fourth night, she felt that she was as ready as she would ever be and she gathered her stick and went to hide in some bushes to wait for the morning and the Sun to rise.

"Ta'nAmyrk'sha waited all night and half the day, for she had judged that her best chance to reach the Sun would be when he was directly overhead, for surely this was when he was closest to the earth. At last, as the Sun reached his zenith in the sky, Ta'nAmyrk'sha stepped out of the bushes.

'You hold the love of our Great Mother against us!' she shouted at the Sun. 'You hide yourself away and we are cold and afraid! I will not let you hold this power over us any longer!' And, taking the stick in her jaws, she leaped, high and strong, all the way to where the Sun sat in the sky.

"But the Sun, who did not wish to give up his power, swatted at her, trying to bat her out of the sky. Ta'nAmyrk'sha brought up the stick to try and fend off the blow, but it was not enough; the stick caught fire and so did Ta'nAmyrk'sha's fur. Screeching in pain, Ta'nAmyrk'sha fell to the ground, but despite the fire burning her, she did not let go of the stick. Instead, she raced to give it to the People and the fire burned great black spots in her fur and in her flesh. All jaguars wear these spots now, in honor of Ta'nAmyrk'sha and to remind us all of what she did for us and of the price she paid.

"And now the People held the secret of fire, and they lit many fires and they rejoiced, saying, 'At last we are warm! What need for the Sun?'

"The Sun heard this and was sad; for he could see that the People no longer needed or wanted him. So he hid himself away and this time he would not come back out. At first, the People did not care, for they thought that with fire, they no longer needed the Sun; they had light and heat of their own now. But after three days, the grass and the trees began to whither and die. After another three days, the grazers began to starve. The hunters were among the last to be affected, and indeed at first they were quite happy, for their prey had become slow and easy to catch. But the grazers were no longer fat from the grass and their meat could no longer sustain the hunters. The bodies of the dead choked the earth and a great sickness spread to all who still lived.

"And now the People saw the truth: the Creator had made them and the Sun as part of the same whole. They might have stolen the secret of fire, but they could not survive without his light for long.

"So the People put out all the fires and cried out for the Sun to return, saying that they needed him and wished him to come back. The Sun heard them from where he was hiding and was pleased, for all things wish to be needed somehow.

'Very well,' he said, 'I will come back. But you must never again forget that you need me to live.' And he came out of hiding and the People danced and rejoiced at the sight of him and he remembered that they were his kin and that he loved them, and he shone brightly and made the earth warm again.

"Now, the Sun still gets jealous sometimes of the People who delight their Mother so, and will begin to hide himself away again. So each year, on the longest night, the People remember to put out the fires and sing and dance and cry for the Sun, to remind him that they need him and to come back again.

"So it was told to me, and so I now tell it to you."

o0oo0o

Sirius blinked, realizing with a start that the tale had come to a close. He glanced around quickly, wondering if the others had been as caught up with the story, of it had just been him.

"Cool," said James, looking a bit dazed.

"Did it really happen like that?" asked Peter, almost wistfully.

"I don't know," said Kaysa, seeming a bit out of it herself. "It is a tale from long before my people's time, passed down among the People for over a thousand generations."

"True or not, though, the lesson is a valuable one," said Chitral. "_Mit'sai, mit'sii. _Though one, through all."

She'd said it once before, but Sirius hadn't understood then. Now, however, he thought he might. "It's connection, isn't it?" he asked. "Life 'n, 'n all."

"Yes," said Kaysa simply. "We are all connected. What affects one will affect many. Nothing is so small as to only impact one life, because one life affects those around it who affect those around them and so on. This is one of the Great Truths. It is universal."

Sirius tried to imagine it, this great connection, and found that he couldn't. It wasn't that he didn't understand, he did. But it was so big, and there was so much – so much everything, so much _universe_ to connect – that he simply couldn't fit it all in his head.

"New moon tonight," said Remus quietly, absently stroking Cahiran's fur. "Is that when the Lady Magic can come and walk among the People?"

"It always is in our people's tales," said Chitral. "I do not know if it is true or not, but certainly the moon has some baring on many magics."

She was right, Sirius knew. There were some potions that could only be brewed during certain phases of the moon, or that required the light of a full moon in order to work properly. And then there were werewolves; who were quite obviously affected by the moon. But was this so because the moon was some kind of magical being or entity, or did those legends arise because the moon affected magic somehow? It was an interesting question.

"Why does cool stuff always only happen in stories and legends from so long ago that no one really knows what happened?" James complained. "I mean, how come nothing that interesting ever happens in real life?"

Kaysa laughed. "I'd be careful what I wished for if I were you, Mr. Potter," she said. "Or haven't you noticed? The main characters in such tales tend to suffer cruelly and then die in terribly interesting ways."

"I suppose," said James, yawning. "Still, it would be interesting. Ah well, I'm for bed, then."

"Yeah, me too, I think," said Sirius, stretching and yawning himself. Peter and Remus stood to follow them.

"What, already?" asked Chitral. "It's only eleven."

"Yeah, but it was a long day and I'm tired," said James. "And there's not much to do now but wait for morning anyways."

"There's the midnight service," Kaysa offered. "They do this thing at the church in Hogsmeade every Christmas. I don't understand the storied, but there's pretty music and singing and you light candles and stuff. Chi and me are going, you could come."

"Nah," said James. "I'm too tired to sneak into the village again."

Both girls' faces fell slightly.

"Next year," James promised. "We'll plan for it."

Kaysa's mouth dropped open and Chitral grinned like an idiot.

"You know," Sirius commented to James as they and the others clambered up the stairs to the boys' dormitory, "that might have been the best Christmas present we could have given them, saying we'll do this again next year."

James shrugged. "They're our friends," he said simply.

* * *

A/N2: foreshadowing: a plot device which hints at things to come and which is rendered somewhat pointless here on account of we all know what happens.  
irony: humor for the eternally pissed off and the perverse . . . guess which one i am XD

also (ps from the last chap), black cats; i know, cliche, right? laugh. no really! it was _supposed _to be funny

A/N: okay, i promise to try and be quick about getting the next bit up. feel free to review, let me know what you think, all that good stuff... also, if i don't update in time, Happy Holidays, everyone. peace out ^_^

~SilverKit


	14. A Pranking Good New Year

disclaimer: i still own nothing. i'm still insane. . . . . yep, i think that covers it

A/N: hey all, so i'm headed back to school in just a few days so i won't have as much time to write so i'm afraid i'll probably be back to slow-going posts, sorry. i promise to try and make time though and hopefully i wont get too stuck or anything (i get random bouts of writer's block or something... go figure). anyway, hope your all enjoying this. i would love some reviews (you know, just tell me what you think; what's funny, what works, what doesn't, an particularly egregious spelling/grammar mistakes, etc. seriously, any kind of feedback is great. if i know what you all like here, i can try to put more of it in...).

Cheers!

~SilverKit'sFire

* * *

**_A Pranking Good New Year_**

By the end of the week, as the Christmas decorations started to come down around the castle and with New Years just around the corner, Sirius was prepared to call this his most enjoyable vacation ever. Christmas day had started nicely, sitting around the tree in the common room and opening presents with his friends – Sirius thought his favorite might actually be the book Chitral had found. It wasn't magical, but it was full of instructions for building all sorts of odd devices with stuff you could find lying around the house, including a potato cannon he was dying to try. He'd been glad to see that his own gifts for the girls had been well received as well; he hadn't been quite sure what they'd want so he'd banked on the fact that every girl he'd ever met (even Bellatrix, in her own disturbing way) liked pretty things so he'd gotten them a pair of little colored-glass figurines – an orange and yellow gryphon for Kaysa and a blue-pointed unicorn for Chitral. Both girls had squealed with delight when they saw them, proving once and for all that – whatever else the special differences (i mean the differences in the species, here. if anyone knows a better way to say or spell that please let me know.) might be – they were still girls just like any others.

After the presents, they'd all gone outside to the frozen lake where Kaysa and Chitral had introduced them to the concept of skating, had another snowball fight, then headed back inside and experimented with James's new ever-bashing boomerang until it was time for dinner. Christmas dinner at Hogwarts, Sirius decided, was almost reason enough to stay for the holiday; the food was absolutely amazing, although sharing a table with both the remaining students _and _the remaining teachers was a bit intimidating. Or, at least it was until you realized that most of the staff actually did have senses of humor, after which dinner became frightening on an entirely new level.

Boxing Day had been relatively lazy with James, Sirius, and Kaysa playing chess and Exploding Snap and working out the final details of the course for the broomstick race. Remus, Peter, and Chitral played some too, then – probably at Remus's suggestion – tried to actually get some work done. Sirius suspected that he might later regret not having done so as well, but there was still time, he told himself, and, anyway, it wasn't as though they had _that _much work to do. And besides, he was exited for the race.

So was everyone else, actually, and the whole thing probably would have gone off without a hitch until Chitral thought to mention that, except for their brief lessons in flying during first year, neither she nor Kaysa had ever actually ridden a broom before.

"Oh, you've got to know how to fly," James had told them. "It's the only real way to get around til you learn to apparate, and they don't teach us that til we're seventeen."

So they had borrowed some of the school brooms and James had given the girls a quick tutorial. Kaysa had picked it up fairly quick, but Chitral didn't seem quite comfortable.

"Look, I'll just referee this time," she'd said finally. "Then we'll just have to do it again sometime and I can practice over the summer."

Peter also elected to watch, rather than compete, so he and Chitral set up on one of the staircases from which they would be able to see most of the competition while Sirius, James, Remus, and Kaysa all flew the course. James won of course, coming into the finish a good thirty seconds ahead of everyone else, but Sirius felt that the rest of them hadn't done too shabbily, especially Kaysa, who, despite being the least practiced, beat Remus for third by a broom-length. Sirius had been a bit surprised when Remus had said he'd fly, but Remus had jut laughed.

"If any of you get caught doing this we're all going to be in trouble," he'd reasoned. "So I may as well just do it and have fun, right?"

Fortunately, no one did catch them, although Kaysa did comment that it was probably just as well that they wouldn't be sharing a table with Professor Dumbledore that night since if they had he probably would have asked them how it went. James protested that if the man knew what they were up to then why had he let them do it.

"Are you mad?" Kaysa had asked. "Us careening around the castle like idiots? It's probably the best entertainment he's had all year!"

Sirius had laughed at the time, but at dinner that night he'd noticed a twinkle in the headmaster's eye and suddenly wondered if Kaysa might be right. Then he'd wondered, if Dumbledore had indeed known about their obstacle course, did he also know about the enormous pile of fireworks Sirius had hidden under his bed for New Years Eve? Sirius couldn't imagine how he would know something like that, but it suddenly seemed entirely possible that he did.

Still, they'd gotten away with the obstacle course, hadn't they? And it wasn't like he was planning to do the fireworks inside, so probably it would be fine. Probably. Sirius hoped so, anyway, especially given that under his bed wasn't really the ideal place for hiding that many fireworks. It would be a terrible way to wake up.

"Okay, not that I'm oppose to late nights or anything," Kaysa said when News Years Eve found them all in the common room waiting up, "but why are we waiting for midnight? I mean, what's the deal?"

"It's traditional," Sirius told her. "On New Years Eve you always stay up til midnight, that way you see the new year start."

"But why?" Kaysa wanted to know.

"And what for?" added Chitral, looking at him as though he were crazy. "It's not as if it'll look any different."

Sirius gritted his teeth and counted to fifty by fives. She might be more resigned to the cultural differences than Kaysa, but sometimes Chitral's practicality really ground on his nerves. At least with Kaysa it was just incessant but open curiosity.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't think it's that kind of seeing. Anyway, I said it was traditional, right? Doesn't that mean that no one really knows why?"

Kaysa opened her mouth and turned to Remus, but the werewolf was already shaking his head.

"Don't look at me," he said. "I don't know either. Maybe it was supposed to be lucky or something."

"It's still stu—" Chitral started but Kaysa cut her off.

"Oh, shut up, Chi," she said rolling her eyes. "Honestly, I don't know why you're such a sourpuss today."

Chitral glowered slightly at her cousin but subsided; going back to the essay she was working on.

"Don't mind her, Sirius," said Kaysa cheerfully. "She's probably just working on a hairball or something. So we wait for midnight, see the new year, and then . . . what? Have some kind of a party?"

"Something like that," said Sirius, laughing at the idea of Chitral hawking up a human-sized hairball in the middle of Gryffindor tower. The poor house-elf that found it would probably be very confused. "We're going outside."

"Why?" asked Kaysa. "Is there something to see?"

Sirius grinned. "Actually, there is. But I'm not telling you; it's a surprise."

"No fair," Kaysa complained, but she looked excited. Sirius was glad. Earlier that evening, he and James had enlisted Remus and Peter's help in distracting the girls while they snuck all the fireworks outside and set up.

"Come on," Kaysa wheedled. "Tell us what the surprise is."

"Nuh-uh," said Sirius. "Then it wouldn't be a surprise."

"Well, how about a hint, then?"

"Nope."

"Oh fantastic," Chitral grumbled irritably. "Now she's gonna pester you all night long."

Silence filled the room. After a moment Chitral finally seemed to notice and looked up from her essay to find them all staring at her. She blinked then seemed to come to. She cursed softly and put her head in her hands.

"I'm sorry, you guys," she said. "I don't know what's wrong with me today."

"Maybe you're hungry," suggested Peter. "That always makes my mum grumpy."

Sirius rolled his eyes; of course Peter would think of something food-related, but Chitral looked thoughtful.

"I suppose that could be it," she said frowning. "We did get up pretty late so it was just late breakfast and then an early dinner."

"Okay," said James, looking suddenly excited about something. "How 'bout this then: it's ten past eleven now, so why don't we just sneak on down to the kitchens? We can get a second dinner or whatever, and pick up some butterbeers for midnight while we're at it."

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Kaysa. "What say you all?"

"I'm in," said Sirius at once. Butterbeer was a fantastic idea and it would give them a way to pass the time too.

"Me too," Peter agreed readily, not that anyone was surprised.

"Yeah, okay," said Chitral when James looked at her. Remus just shrugged, but that was all they needed. James ran upstairs for the Invisibility Cloak while Kaysa and Chitral swapped out their human forms for cat ones. By the time they all made it down to the kitchens everyone had worked up something of an appetite and while Peter and Chitral ate the most, Sirius and the others put away a tidy bit as well. Then, at five minutes to midnight, they took their butterbeers, thanked the house-elves, and headed outside.

Sirius made everyone else wait on a small hill while he and James went down to the lake to light the fuses. There weren't that many, actually, despite the vast quantity of fireworks. He and James had managed – they hoped – to rig them so that they only had to light about four or five fuses which then branched and would set off everything. Sirius just hoped that they had gotten the timing right, was all. If everything went off at once it wouldn't be very impressive, just very loud. Still, the man at the shop had advised them on how to do this and both he and James were pretty sure they'd gotten in right.

As they made it back up the hill and joined the others the first batch went off, hissing and whizzing as they shot into the air, then exploded with an awesome bang. Bursts of green, gold, and red filled the clear night sky, followed by several white ones that screamed on the way up then flared into smaller, crackling spots that flashed quick and then died.

"Pretty," breathed Chitral, her eyes glued to the sky as more fireworks went off, this time in purple, blue, and white.

"Oh, you guys," said Kaysa quietly, a rapturous expression on her face. "Oh…"

"Don't look at us," said James grinning. "It was Sirius's idea."

"Well, you said you'd never really done New Years before," said Sirius gruffly, blushing as Kaysa and Chitral turned to stare at him. "So I just thought… Anyway, don't sell the rest of you short, James. You all helped." They had, too; he couldn't possibly have paid for all those fireworks or have set them up on his own.

"They're beautiful," said Kaysa, smiling warmly at them all before turning her attention back to the sky.

"Thanks, everyone," said Chitral quietly. She looked a little humbled and Sirius suspected she felt guilty for being such a grump all day.

"It was our pleasure," he told her, smiling and touching her on the shoulder. "Really."

Jade-green eyes studied him for a moment, then Chitral smiled, it was a little hesitant, albeit, but a smile nonetheless.

"Thank you," she said again.

"Cheers, mate," James told him, holding out his butterbeer as another round went off and everyone oo-ed and ah-ed appreciatively.

"Cheers," Sirius agreed happily, clinking his bottle to James's, then looking back up at the sky. The new year looked pretty good to him from here.

_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_

"What happens if you get shrinking solution on a person?" Kaysa asked several days later as they sat at a table in the common room, trying to get through all the homework they'd been ignoring til now.

"No idea," said James. "Probably nothing pleasant. Why?"

"Just an idea I've been toying with," said Kaysa shrugging.

"Spill," James ordered. "I know that look."

Kaysa hesitated, then said, "Okay, so you remember how, at the begin of break you said something about setting traps for the returning students? Well," she continued when they all nodded, "I've been thinking… You remember that time last year when Peeves caused such a ruckus throwing water balloons at the students as they got out of their exams? Well, what if we did something similar, but with a potion or something in the balloons instead?"

"I like it," said James approvingly. "Simple yet effective."

"I don't know," said Remus slowly, frowning at his Arithmancy homework. "Most of the potions we know aren't very nice to have spilled on you. And anyway, where would we brew them?"

"The where is hardly a problem with the castle so empty," scoffed James. "And I'm sure we could think of something funny but relatively harmless."

"Dye," said Chitral suddenly.

"Uh, no thank you," said James. "I like living."

"No, no, no," said Chitral laughing. "Dye, not die. I mean like for clothes or hair or whatever. Could you imagine if we turned all the Slytherins pink or something?"

"Oh!" said James, catching on. "Yeah, that's good. Think we could get it to stick to people's skin too?"

"Why not?" said Kaysa. "I mean, ink does. Remus, this can't be right," she added, indicating one of his answers. "It doesn't add up right."

"What?" said Remus, looking where she was pointing. "Oh. You're right. Huh… I like the dye idea," he admitted as he started refiguring. "It sounds like good fun. Hmn." He bit his lip pensively, eyeballing the problem. "Kaysa, how'd you do this?"

"Easy," said Kaysa, grabbing a piece of scrap paper and scribbling something quickly on it. "See, you move this over here like this, and then that goes there and then . . . see? Makes much more sense that way."

"Oh, yeah," said Remus happily, going back to the problem. "Okay, I get it. Cool. I don't think I'd have thought to do it that way."

Sirius, working on an essay for Professor McGonagall, rolled his eyes. Arithmancy, which Kaysa, Chitral, and Remus all took instead of Muggle Studies, was Kaysa's best subject, probably because it was a lot like math. Kaysa wasn't exactly the classic nerd or anything, but she did get excited about learning new things or when she managed to grasp a new concept; the more complicated the better. Frankly, Sirius couldn't see what the fuss was all about.

"Anyway," he said pointedly, "going back to the original topic…"

"Right," said Kaysa, looking back up and frowning. "So we can use dyes to color people's hair, clothes or skin. What else?"

"Boils, maybe," said James. "There's that powder you can buy at Zonko's."

"What part of 'harmless' didn't connect with your brain?" asked Chitral with a snort. "Boils hurt."

"Oh," said James, looking a little put out.

"I don't know," said Sirius shrugging. "If you diluted it enough it might not be so bad."

"Wartcap powder too, then, if we're careful," said Kaysa.

James stared at her. "You know, sometimes the random things you know about are a little scary," he told her.

"I read a lot," said Kaysa dismissively. "Anyway, wartcap powder I think would work okay diluted, but I'm not sure we could find any fast enough. We could also use a swelling solution, couldn't we? That's harmless enough in small doses."

"We could use a Hair-Raising potion too," said Sirius, nibbling the tip of his quill as he thought. "People would be walking around all day with their hair sticking up, that'd be fun."

"Yeah, okay," said Peter, "but how are we gonna get all this stuff?"

"Boy's got a point," said Chitral on a laugh. "Some of it we can find in Hogsmeade, like the balloons and the Bulbadox Powder—"

"Dyes, too, probably," Kaysa put in. "I know there's a shop that does stuff for hair. We can modify them if we need too."

"Yeah," agreed Chitral, "but what about the potions? I mean, we'd either have to make them or else steal them."

"Well, we know how to brew a Swelling Solution," said James. "So that one's easy. And I bet we could find the recipe for the Hair-Raising one in the library."

"What if it needs to be swallowed?" asked Sirius. "I mean, we know the Swelling Solution is topical, but most potions need to be drunk."

"I think I can handle that," said Kaysa. "We used to make ointments and medicines and things back home. Potions isn't too different."

"Really?" asked Remus, looking surprised.

"No," said Chitral before Kaysa could answer. "I mean, we did make stuff back home, but it's not that much like potions. Kaysa's just good at it, is all."

"Shut up, Chi," said Kaysa, looking a little self-conscious. "It is so like what we used to do at home."

"Only the way you think about it," retorted Chitral. "You're brain works funny."

"Whatever," James interrupted. "You can do it?"

"I think so," said Kaysa. "I can try, anyway."

"Good," said James. "Then you and Remus or someone can hit the library later today and find the recipe while the rest of us slip over to Hogsmeade and pick up the rest of what we'll need."

"Sounds good to me," said Remus. "I need to go to the library for one of my essays anyway."

"Good," said James, then he held out his essay to Sirius. "Swap you for proofreading?"

Sirius, just finishing the final sentence for his own essay, groaned but took James's essay anyway, shoving his own across the table. Ah well, nearly done.

**_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_**

**_(Kaysa)_**

"You know," said Remus to Kaysa, as they researched potions in the library, "stuff like this would be a lot easier if you'd just teach us how to use that telepathy stuff long-distance."

Kaysa laughed and rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid," she told him.

"What, you don't think this would be easier if Chitral didn't keep pestering you about what to get and all?"

"Oh no, no it would be," said Kaysa; it would be much easier if James and Sirius and Peter could have reached her directly instead of having to go through Chitral each time. Of course, it would also be nice if it could have been Chitral here doing research instead so she, herself, could go to Hogsmeade and have some fun.

"Kaysa?" Remus prompted.

"What?" she said, blinking. "Oh, sorry. Of course it would be. But I didn't mean that. I meant that we _can't_ teach you. It's not something you learn, it's something you acquire."

"I don't get it," said Remus flatly. "I mean, we can do it just fine. Why should getting in contact with you from Hogsmeade be any different from doing it from across a room?"

Kaysa sighed; Remus had that look on, the one that said he wouldn't leave the matter along til he knew. Oh well, maybe she'd slip into the village later. James and Sirius would probably be willing to go with her; they were always up for more fun.

"It's because it's farther away," she explained. "Mind-speech is a skill. It doesn't work like a muggle telephone. You can't make a 'long-distance call' until you have enough mental control and strength to reach that far away to find someone's mind. And right now none of you are there yet."

"But we do okay here," Remus persisted, frowning at her. "It's not like you can't hear us, or anything."

"No," Kaysa agreed, "but you still need us to make contact first."

"Oh, come on," her friend protested. "We've managed to get your attention a few times all on our own."

"And how did you achieve that?" Kaysa prompted him.

"We just had to shout loud enough," said Remus.

"Exactly," said Kaysa. "When Chi or I makes contact, do we ever need to shout at you?"

"Well, no, but—" Remus began then stopped, comprehension dawning. "Oh," he said, blinking at the realization. "Oh. Sorry…"

"It's alright," she reassured him, smiling as she remembered her own early attempts to perform intentional telepathy. Trying to teach the boys had made her feel sorry for her old instructors; not only had she done her share of mental shouting, but she'd tended to whack people over the head when she got frustrated. "It's the same for everyone at first."

"It is?" He looked startled.

"Of course," said Kaysa. "Telepathy is a skill like any other. It takes practice."

"Oh," said Remus. "I guess I always just assumed that it was you guys' language. But I guess that was stupid. I mean, I heard you talking foreign that time you all sent me to the Hospital Wing."

Kaysa laughed. Maybe more than she should have, since he started looking confused, and then a bit concerned. But she couldn't help it; it just struck her as funny at the time.

"Sorry, sorry," she said, waiving a hand. "It's just — you looked so serious — and — and that's not even—" She stopped, took a few deep breaths; she was only confusing the poor bloke more.

"Sorry," she said again when she had a hold on herself. "It's just kind of funny because that's not actually our native language either."

"It's not?"

"Of course not," said Kaysa, grinning. "Lions, remember? We're don't exactly have human vocal cords. Or mouths."

"Right, right" said Remus, rolling his eyes at himself. Then he frowned. "So then, what language do you use?"

"All animals have ways to communicate," said Kaysa. "Shouldn't you know that better than most humans? I mean, you are a werewolf."

"Well, yes, but it's not exactly as if I'm ever around anyone when it happens," said Remus. He looked uncomfortable and Kaysa mentally kicked herself for forgetting how he disliked talking about it. She still didn't really understand; she knew that the transformations were painful and all, but his desire for secrecy felt like more than that, as if he were afraid or ashamed or something. But this was hardly the time to ask.

"Oh," she said, "well, they do, and my people were no different. Until we started interacting with humans – or humanoids – we had no concept of an entirely spoken language. We spoke only the language of beasts. We still do, actually, and consider it to be our native language, even though we do now have a spoken language."

"Cool," said Remus, putting aside the book he'd been looking at and taking another one from the stack of books they'd thought might be useful. "Could you teach it to us?"

"What, Spoken?" said Kaysa, startled.

"Is that what it's called?" asked Remus. "Just 'Spoken'?"

"What else would we call it?"

"Oh. Well. Then yes, could you teach us Spoken? Or, me, anyway. I guess I can't really speak for the others."

"Huh," said Kaysa, chewing her lip as she thought – a habit she'd picked up here among humans. "I'm not sure. I mean, I could try. You could learn the words, probably. Most of them, anyway – we've found some aren't really pronounceable for humans. Anyway, you'd never all the undertones right."

"Undertones?" her friend repeated blankly.

"Yeah… I'm not sure that's the right word, but… it's like, little things," Kaysa tried to explain. "Little sounds that we make – inflections, purrs, and the like – little things we use to make the words mean more."

"What, you mean like tone of voice?" asked Remus.

"Yes. No. Not really. Look, it's complicated."

Remus shrugged. "We've got time," he said. Kaysa studied him for a moment. He stared back at her, his blue eyes eager and curious. She smiled.

"Alright," she told him. "But be prepared for an earful." He just grinned and nodded. "Right," she continued, "so, remember way back when when I said something about how our languages were different? Like ours had more context than English? Well, this is what I was talking about. See, with animals – with our native language – it's different. We speak with more than just sounds, we speak with our bodies, with our scents. When we speak with telepathy we speak with our minds, with our hearts. My people were used to 'language' communicating much more than any spoken language we've ever encountered ever did. Do you understand?" She wasn't sure how well she was explaining this; she'd never really though about it before. To her, it was just how it worked. But Remus was nodding.

"I think so," he said. "I mean, not specifically, but I think I get the general idea."

"Good," said Kaysa. "Now, among animals, there is a certain amount of universality. Like knows like best, of course, but any one of the People can speak to any other, regardless of species. Humans are all one species, but they are not like this. When our people first encountered humanity, that was when we first learned of spoken languages, and of deception – of lies."

"You didn't know how to lie?" asked Remus. He sounded shocked.

Kaysa shook her head. "We never lied. How could we when our bodies would give us away?" When he still looked confused she said, "I mean we could smell it."

"Oh," said Remus, nodding. "Okay. So you were used to language communicating more and being honest. Got it. Keep going."

"Well," said Kaysa, "we quickly realized that to communicate with humans we would have to learn these spoken languages. And then we decide that maybe we'd better have a spoken language of our own so our ancestors invented one. And that's what made it complicated. See, Spoken was invented before we really understood about language so we ended up trying to make it say as much as telepathy or our native language could. That's what the undertones or whatever are for. When I say something, like, say, if I were speaking to Chitral, then anyone listening who understood would be able to know – not just guess, know – things, like who we are to each other, are we friends, are we Family, who has the higher rank, would we die for each other, would we kill. Things like that. In English, when people say 'I love you' so much has to be inferred. With Spoken, _everything_ is said."

"Wow," said Remus, blinking. Kaysa was pleased; he looked impressed.

"Yeah," she said. "So, I could try to teach you, but I think you'll have better luck just sticking with the telepathy."

"Yeah…" said Remus, still looking as though he was having trouble getting his head around the idea of a language that said everything. "Yeah, okay. Maybe you could help us some with that? I mean, I know you said that you can't teach us the long distance stuff and all, but surely you could teach us something, like how to make contact without shouting. That's got to be annoying."

Kaysa laughed. "Maybe," she said, turning her attention back to the potions book she was flipping through, looking for ideas. "But it's work. I'm not too sure your friends will like it."

"They'll live," Remus assured her, a faint but definite twinkle in his eyes. "Besides, work's good for the soul. Character building."

"Boy after my own heart," said Kaysa, holding out her hand for a high-five. "Now, what do you think of this…"

_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_

Between what Chitral and the boys brought back from the village and what Kaysa and Remus found in the library, they decided that they had enough to make balloons filled with Swelling Solution, a mild dilute of Bulbadox Powder, and a mixture of Hair-Raising Potion and paint. It had been James's idea to use paint instead of ink, since it was cheaper and came in better colors. Peter had actually been the one to suggest combining it with the Hair-Raising Potion. Kaysa thought both ideas were brilliant; paint wouldn't sink into skin the way inks and dyes did and using the potion would mean that people couldn't hide their fun-colored faces behind their hair.

Both Remus and Chitral were still on the fence about using the Bulbadox Powder; worried that it would hurt no matter how much they watered it down. Sirius had complained that they were over thinking the whole thing and then said something about how you couldn't make broomsticks without cutting down a few trees, which made no sense to Kaysa, or her cousin, who was beginning to snarl. Fortunately, at this point, James had jumped in and settled the whole argument by saying that if Chitral was really so worried he'd just test out the solution on himself before they put it in any balloons. This seemed to satisfy Chitral, but Sirius was still being a bit stiff with her.

"Don't be mad at her," Kaysa murmured to him as they set up some of their cauldrons in the bathroom off of the third year boys' dormitory. Only a few other Gryffindors had stayed for the holidays, mostly seventh years studying for their N.E.W.T.s, but it still meant that the bathroom was going to be the best place for brewing the Hair-Raising Potion and Swelling Solution.

"Huh?" said Sirius blankly, looking up from where he was balancing a cauldron on its stand. "Mad at who?"

"Chitral," said Kaysa, glad her cousin was busy stashing the paint and the powder in her own trunk. "About the powder. She just wants to make sure no one gets hurt is all."

"I know that," said Sirius, rather brusquely. "I'm not mad. Not really."

Kaysa raised an eyebrow at him. He sighed and rubbed his face.

"Really," he said, his tone softening some, "I'm not mad. Chitral just gets on my nerves sometimes. She's a little… I dunno, fussy? … sometimes. I probably wouldn't even have minded except I'd already spent over an hour listening to her worry like that in Hogsmeade."

"Oh," said Kaysa. Well, she supposed she could understand that. Hadn't she thought as much herself often enough? "Alright then."

Carefully, she set the last cauldron on its stand then started making a small pile of wood beneath it for the fire later. Then she frowned as an odd thought struck her.

"So," she said slowly, tapping a piece of wood against the rim of the cauldron, "if you and James are too rash, and Remus and Chitral worry too much, and Peter's… well, Peter's a little timid, really, I guess, then what about me? What am I?"

"What, you mean like, what's your flaw, or something?"

"Yeah. I know what people say about you all, but what about me?"

Sirius laughed. "You're joking, right? It's curiosity," he said. "You ask way too many questions!"

Kaysa blinked, then burst out laughing, remembering her teacher's complaints from back home. She supposed some things just never changed.

**_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_**

The best part of the holidays being over, Sirius decided, was easily how well their balloon prank worked. Both James and Sirius were put in detention by Professor McGonagall when one of the balloons hit her as she opened her classroom door, but that didn't mean that the fun was over. Thanks to careful strategic placement, worked out mostly by James and Remus, but also aided by Peter and his shocking knowledge of small hidey-holes, students and teachers alike were walking around the castle with bright pink, blue, yellow, or green faces, spiked hair, inflated extremities, and mild boils for several days after classes started back up again. James and Sirius were particularly pleased with the results of their Slytherin balloons. They had spent a good few hours placing balloons in places they thought only Slytherins were likely to go in the hopes of catching Snape with something. To Sirius's utter delight, not only did Snape get hit with a Bulbadox Powder balloon, but Malfoy and Narcissa also got hit, Malfoy by one of the ones with blue paint which he couldn't get off for two whole days, and Narcissa by on of the pink ones.

The worst part of the end of the holidays, however, was a tie between just how much homework they were being given and how little time Kaysa and Chitral seemed to spend with him and his friends now that Lily and Heather were back.

Not that Sirius didn't understand, he did. Girls needed other girls for friends, just like blokes needed other blokes. He knew that. But he missed Kaysa's quick humor and Chitral's practical solutions to problems and Lily's persistent dislike of himself and James meant that they could never just all hang out together.

"You know," he said to Kaysa one night at dinner as Lily shot James a disgusted look, "you could try convincing her we're not all that bad."

"Yeah, and hedgehogs might fly," Kaysa retorted as she smacked the back of James's head. "Don't do that, you idiot. The teachers are still watching you."

James, who had been aiming a forkful of mash potato at Snape, swore mildly as the shot went wide, landing in some poor, unsuspecting Hufflepuff's lap.

"I could have had him," James complained, turning to face the table quickly as the Hufflepuff, a fifth or sixth year by the looks of it, turned round, looking for the culprit. "Why'd you have to do that?"

Kaysa rolled her eyes. "Moron," she muttered, then turned back to Sirius. "And you wonder why she doesn't like you lot."

"You don't seem to mind," James pointed out, loading the rest of his mashed potatoes with gravy.

That was true, Sirius reflected and he looked expectantly at Kaysa, wondering what she'd say.

"No, but I'm crazy," came her answer. "You can hardly expect me to be any kind of example of normal."

Sirius laughed with the others, but he wished she'd given a serious answer. Now he thought about, he really wasn't sure why she and Chitral hung around with him and his friends. Not that he was complaining, his friends — and he now included Kaysa and Chitral in that category — were some of the only things that his life feel worth living. Not that he'd ever admit it out loud. Then he'd have to explain, and while he thought James probably suspected he doubted if the others had a clue, which was how he preferred it. He didn't want pity, just good friends.

Still, he mused, as he crawled into be later that night, people (which is to say, his parents) never seemed to have a problem vocalizing why they didn't like him. He could have made an extensive list of all his potential flaws. It would have been nice to have a list of his good points to match.

* * *

A/N: sorry about the linguistics lesson... i go off on tangents sometimes... i also like exploring Kaysa and Chitral's world/culture. i'm still working out all the details. if anyone is curious about Shifter culture or more Shifter stories check out my stuff at fictionpress. i've got one story up that i'll continue if there's enough people interested. i've also got some poetry and a teen story i'm working on there too. feel free to check it out. it's all under the pen-name Kuroki Honoo.

Cheers,

SilverKit


	15. Unknown Questions

disclaimer: i own nothing...T.T

A/N: hi everyone, i'm really sorry this took so long to get up. it took me forever to get this chap to come out right and i'm still not quite sure about it so any feedback would be much appreciated. i also finally had to decide that it would have to be spread out over at least two chaps, maybe even three. i'll try to get them up faster, but i can't promise anything... sorry. but i promise i'm going somewhere with this, really really! it's just being difficult is all.

also, the title here is a reference to an X-Files quote if anyone's interested (yeah, i know, i'm a nerd ^_^), where Scully says something to the effect that maybe dreams are answers to questions that we don't yet know how to ask.

A/N 2: now minorly edited. don't worry, no major changes or anything. not yet, anyway. still not sure i've got it quite right...

* * *

_**Unknown Questions**_

_Silvery moonlight covers the field, the sky painted a deep blue velvet. The earth smells damp and inviting. The grass swishes, cool and slightly prickly beneath her bare feet._

_Ha, feet! Such strange things, really. Awkward-looking and always impossible to draw._

_She changes, trading two feet for four paws. So much better. How did humankind ever become so strong with its weak senses and naked hide?_

_Something moves, far away in the field. She can't see it, but she doesn't need to; she can hear it: Prey._

_She crouches. Swift and silent she stalks, following the faint sounds. Her eyes work better at night than any human's but she scarcely needs them; her ears and nose tell her so much already. She stalks a warthog, a young male in rut, arrogant and stupid, drunk on his own testosterone. This is almost too easy._

_She creeps along, gliding through the tall grass, each movement carefully measured, each paw carefully placed. Her prey mustn't hear her, mustn't feel her steps and take warning._

_She stops two lengths away, bunches her hindquarters underneath her, rocks her hips, calculating the distance._

_The wind changes. The warthog's head shoots up, ears pricked. He smells her. But it's too late. Even as he begins to run in a desperate attempt to escape her, she bounds forward, springs, aiming for his neck._

_Her jaws close, but not to the course hair and crunch of spine she expected. Instead, her mouth is filled with something that tastes a little like dirt and dries out her mouth even faster._

_She sits up. Spits out the mouthful of sand. Stares around. The field is gone, replaced by this land of endless sand. Where is she?_

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

"Bloody hell, Chitral, stop yawning, would you? We're tired enough as it is."

Sirius rolled his eyes. It hardly seemed fair for James to complain when he was yawning every few minutes himself.

"I'm not tired," said Kaysa.

"Yeah, well," Chitral started then evidently couldn't come up with anything good this early. "Shut up!"

Kaysa sniggered. Chitral glowered and poured herself another cup of hot morning tea.

"Are you alright?" Remus asked her. "I mean, these two are always tired," he indicated James and Sirius, "but you're usually okay."

"I'm fine," Chitral mumbled, feeding her half-eaten piece of bacon to Cahi and earning herself a glare from her cousin. "I'm just tired. I didn't sleep that well last night, that's all."

"Really?" said Kaysa, peering at Chitral curiously.

"No," Chitral snapped irritably. "I slept like a baby, I just happen to like looking like hell in the morning these days."

"Aw, Chi, don't be mean," Kaysa chided. "I was only surprised."

Chitral merely grunted. Kaysa sighed.

"Oh, come on, you guys," Sirius complained. "It's too early for this."

"Yeah, we're all having some trouble adjusting back to a normal schedule here," agreed James. "Quit fighting, would you?"

Kaysa said nothing. Chitral stabbed moodily at a piece of melon with her fork. Sirius rested his head in one hand; this did not bode well for the rest of the day.

"What do you suppose we're doing in Defense Against the Dark Arts today?" asked Remus just as the silence began to feel awkward and oppressive. "Professor Reardon said last week we'd be trying something new."

Sirius turned to stare at him. It wasn't that he didn't understand what his friend was trying to do, but given how tired most of them were, bringing up prospective work didn't seem like the best idea. Kaysa, however, seemed genuinely interested.

"I don't know," she said pensively, "but he seemed pretty excited about it. And has anyone else noticed? Kettleburn's been strange too lately. Like he's got a fantastic secret or something."

Sirius frowned; he had noticed, actually.

"You don't think the two are connected, do you?" he asked. "I mean, they teach completely different classes."

"I know," said Kaysa, "that's what's so weird about it. Normally I wouldn't think it was connected, but they've been talking to each other a lot at dinner lately, and then all of Kettleburn's classes are canceled for today."

"What? How d'you know that?" James demanded.

"I heard some of the older Ravenclaws complaining about it last night," she explained.

"That's not all," added Peter quietly, looking excited now. "I heard Neal and Kynthia talking this weekend. Apparently Kynthia heard it from Ashleigh that Kettleburn's been checking out a lot of books from the library lately. And he was gone all weekend, and all last weekend, but it's been kept quiet for some reason. No one knows why."

"Odd," said James, frowning slightly. "What do you suppose is going on?"

"I don't know," Peter replied. "I mean, I tried poking around the library some, but it's not exactly like I could just go up to Madame Pince and ask."

"Yeah…" Sirius mused. "Maybe he's looking for some kind of illegal creature to show us. That would be cool."

"Yeah," said James, "and it's not exactly as if it would be beyond him to do it. He's always been a bit loose with rules."

"Well, that may be," Kaysa murmured, "but I doubt he want us to get hurt, you know."

"I dunno, Kays," said Chitral, chiming in for the first time. "He's always seemed the type to put interesting over safe to me."

"Yeah, well, one way or another, we'll find out eventually," said Remus practically. "Come on, let's get going, or we'll be late to class."

"Ha!" laughed James as they stood to leave. "As if Professor Binns would even notice if we were late."

Professor Binns, in fact, did not notice that they were late, nor did he notice when James kept dozing off, or when Remus poked Sirius to poke Kaysa to ask after Chitral, who had fallen asleep.

_Well, that's unusual, _Kaysa admitted, grasping Chitral's wrist presumably to check her out.

_There's nothing wrong with her, _she assured them a moment later. _She's just tired, like she said._

_You're sure? _Remus pressed her.

_Positive, _she told him. _Look, maybe it was just one of those nights or something. I'm a little wired myself._

Remus's mind filled with images of her twitching in her seat and Sirius thought of how the bench they were sitting on hadn't stopped wiggling since she'd sat down.

_We'd noticed, _they chorused together. Kaysa checked quick to make sure no one was looking then stuck her tongue out at them. Sirius grinned at her, then sent, _Maybe you should wake her up… If Professor Binns notices I doubt he'll be very happy._

_Probably not, _Kaysa admitted, _but if she's really that tired I'd rather let her sleep. At least Binns is the least likely to notice._

Remus looked a bit reproachful at this, but made no protest, and went back to his notes. Sirius, deciding it was quite a valid point, leaned back in his seat for a little snooze of his own. Nothing interesting ever happened in History of Magic anyway.

Something interesting did happen, however, in Defense Against the Dark Arts later that day. When the students walked into the classroom, the first thing everyone noticed was that Professor Reardon wasn't there. The second thing they noticed was that Reardon's chair, desk, and even the medium-sized easel chalk board he liked to use sometimes had all been cleared away leaving a large open space at the front of the room.

"Weird," said James sliding into a seat beside Sirius. "Reardon's never late."

"He can't have left, can he?" asked Liam from his seat at the front.

"Don't be stupid," scoffed Lily, "he was at breakfast this morning."

"Maybe he got sick," suggested Cameron, looking worried.

"I doubt it," said Kaysa. "We'd have heard if he did."

"Not necessarily," Cam began but Chitral cut him off.

"Even so, if he wasn't able to be here for some reason he'd have arranged for a substitute. If he's not here yet and no sub is here either then most likely he just got held up somewhere."

Sirius nodded; that made sense. Still, it was unlike Reardon to be late for anything and class should have started at least five minutes ago. Another minute passed. And then another.

"Look, are we _sure_—" someone began, but just then there was a clanging outside the classroom door and loud voices filtered into the room.

"OUCH! Damn! Be careful, would you?"

"I still don't see why you won't just let me —"

"Are you mad? These creatures aren't exactly friendly, I really don't want to antagonize them any more than I have to."

"By jolting them all around that castle?"

"They don't like magic! At least in the tank it's cushioned a bit. And would someone please open the ruddy door?"

Cam, who was farthest away, bolted out of his seat and was opening the door before anyone else could so much as stand up. The door admitted an angry looking Professor Reardon, carefully pulling a large tank of water on a dolly behind him, aided by Professor Kettleburn pushing at the back. They were followed by an anxious Flitwick. The tank was split into three sections; one containing a green, horny creature with very long fingers, one with a thing in it that looked a bit like a monkey would if you shrank it a bit and gave it webbed hands and feet and scales instead of fur, and the third, in the middle, seemed to hold nothing but water.

"Thanks, Flitwick, I think we're alright from here," said Kettleburn politely. Professor Reardon just snorted. Flitwick hesitated for a moment, then left.

The class stared as Reardon and Kettleburn rolled the tank with some difficulty through the desks and up to the front of the room where the space had been cleared, evidently for just this reason. Then, when they had it positioned to their liking, Professor Reardon turned and faced his flabbergasted students.

"Well," he said, his dark eyes sparkling with amusement, "I said we'd be doing something new this week, and here we are. Can anyone tell me what any of these creatures are?"

Silence filled the room. No one seemed to feel that this was enough of an explanation.

"Come on," Reardon prompted when no one raised their hand. "Anyone? Ah, Miss. Farley?"

"That one on the end, with the horns," the girl said tentatively, "is it a grindylow?"

"It is indeed, Miss Farley," said Reardon. "Very good, take five points for Gryffindor. Now, how about these others? Anyone know what they are?"

"That other one's a kappa, isn't it?" said Cam eagerly, pointing to the aquatic monkey. "I've read about them. They like cucumbers for some reason, I think."

"Very good, Mr. Walsh. Take another five points. And how about this last one?"

Silence, then, "But, sir," said Heather, "there's nothing there."

"What?" said Reardon, looking around at the still empty-looking middle section of the tank. "Oh, I suppose it is hard to see this way, isn't it."

He frowned for a moment, then moved to stand behind the tank. Pulling off his black cloak, he held it draped over the middle section so that it cast a shadow on the water within.

"See it now?" he asked the class. Sirius looked closely, leaning forward in his seat. There was something there, maybe. A faint outline of something, and it shimmered just a bit.

"How did you find an Undine?" Kaysa exclaimed, not bothering to raise her hand. "They're supposed to be almost impossible to find, let alone catch."

"A what?" asked James blankly, voicing Sirius's own question.

"An Undine," said Kaysa, still staring at the shimmery thing just visible in the tank; it was moving a bit, Sirius thought. "A water sprite. They —"

Professor Reardon cleared his throat. Kaysa stopped, looked at him, then flushed slightly.

"Sorry, Professor," she said. "I didn't mean to —"

"It's alright, Miss. Kaysa," said Reardon with a small smile. "But do try to rein in your enthusiasm a little. And you are correct; this is, indeed, an Undine. Take four points."

"Why only four?" asked James indignantly.

"I'm deducting a point for speaking out of turn," said Professor Reardon mildly. The class laughed quietly.

"Oh," said James. "Guess I'll shut up, then."

"Very wise of you," Reardon agreed, putting his cloak back on and moving to stand beside the tank once more. "Now, obviously, the one thing that all the creatures have in common is that they are water based, yes? So, now you know what we are doing."

"No we don't," said Cam, his hand in the air. "So they're all aquatic creature, so what? For all we know, you went to an Aquarium over break and got inspired or something."

"What's an Aquarium?" asked James.

"It's a muggle thing with fish in it," said Kaysa dismissively. "Anyway—"

"Kaysa," Lily admonished, "you're over simplifying things."

Kaysa rolled her eyes. "Oh, never mind that, you can explain later if you want. What I want to know is how you managed to catch an Undine."

"And what's Professor Kettleburn doing here?" asked Sirius curiously.

"Yeah," agreed Liam, "it's not his class."

Professor Reardon held up his hands in surrender.

"Ah! A mutiny!" he cried, laughing just a little. "Silvanus, my friend, would you care to explain?"

"It was your idea, Don," said Kettleburn. "You tell them."

"Very well, then," said Reardon cheerfully. "To answer your question, Miss. Kaysa, I did not catch the Undine myself, Professor Kettleburn procured it for us. Actually, he procured all of these creatures here, and is looking into a few more for this section."

"'This section' being?" someone prompted.

"A study of aquatic magical creatures, how to find them, identify them, care for them, and defend against them," said Professor Kettleburn. He looked quite pleased with this announcement. "We will be teaching this together," he added, when the class looked at him blankly.

"Is that allowed?" asked James after a moment.

"It is different, certainly," said Reardon, "but we've spoken to Professor Dumbledore and he has given us a go to try it out."

"Cool," said Kaysa, leaning forward, her green eyes shining. "So, what's a grindylow?"

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

Kaysa was thrilled when she realized that the new water creatures unit meant that she got to study the Fay folk. Faeries and their kin had always been something of a fascination of hers, since they were neither human nor People. They were a breed all their own, and seemed to simultaneously be very much of nature and yet obey none of the normal rules of nature. She was startled to learn, however, that it seemed that most of the Wizarding World didn't actually realize this; they seemed to all think that the Fay folk were just another type of magical creature. Quite an odd notion, to her way of thinking and by the end of class she had lost count of the number of times either Chitral or James had had to stomp on her foot to keep her from talking about things that she shouldn't have known.

"Honestly," she complained, as they all went back up to Gryffindor Tower to get some work done before dinner, "if I weren't a natural healer I'd have bruises on my bruises."

"Yeah, well, then you should learn to watch what you say, shouldn't you?" said James unsympathetically. "I mean, really, and you were the one who was all 'you can never tell anyone about this or else' when you told us."

"But this is different!" Kaysa protested. "This is academic inquiry!"

"Bullocks," said James pulling out a chair at their usual table. "This is you needing to be right."

"No it's not!" Kaysa retorted hotly. " I have no problem being wrong."

"Okay, fine, it's you having a problem with information being wrong," said James. "Either way, you need to get a grip."

Kaysa opened her mouth but Sirius cut her off.

"Oh, quit arguing, you two. Kaysa, you know he's right. Anyway, we're only human, you say so all the time. Let us be wrong about a few things, would you?"

Kaysa pursed her lips but sat down without further protest. She supposed he was right, but still…

"Nevermind," said Remus, sitting down next to her and patting her shoulder. "Not everyone can share your enthusiasm for knowledge is all, I guess. But you can tell me all about it."

Kaysa laughed. "Yeah, alright," she said, flashing him a grateful smile. "But Arithmancy first."

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

_She has never seen so much sand in one place before. She has heard of deserts, but the reality is shocking; the heat rolls off the dunes in waves, blurring the air and stinging her eyes. A breeze should be nice, a relief, but instead it's as though the wind, when it comes, only serves to steal away the moisture from her mouth and nose, and there's no scent but sand and heat._

_She picks a direction and walks. Finds nothing. Keeps on walking. What else can she do?_

_After what could have as easily been a second as an eternity, she hears something. Her ears prick. Those are voices. Human voices. And metal. Wood and metal clashing and humans shouting, screaming._

_She begins to run. She doesn't understand the language, but she doesn't need to to know the sound of humans in pain, any more than she needs to have been to a battle to recognize one._

_She races, following the sounds, furious at the soft sand that slows her pawsteps. Over a dune, around another, she runs, tops a crest. Stops dead. Eyes that squinted against the sun stretch wide with shock and horror._

_In the valley below, battle rages. The men wear no armor, carry only primitive spears and shields which look as though they are made of hide, but she can't be sure, can't smell anything over the sharp, almost coppery, tang of the blood that has stained the sand a deep russet red._

_She is a hunter. She has seen blood before, felt the rush of the kill, tasted death, but never like this. There is no purpose here, no sense to be found. The stench of blood and death fills her nostrils, choking her, as terrible as the sounds that fill her ears and the images that burn in her vision._

_She is drowning. She will drown and become just another body, just another death on this burning patch of sand where humans make a killing-field._

_Why is she here?_

_Suddenly, a sound — high pitched, almost painful — fills her ears, louder even than the clash of battle below. Something — someone? — is ringing, screeching. She wants to close her ears to the sound but for some reason she can't, can't make herself stop listening. There's something, something strange, something peculiar about that sound. Something that makes the fur on her spine prickle even as she pricks her ears, irrationally straining to make out the sound better. To understand._

_It is singing. Not ringing. Not screeching. Singing._

_Confused, desperate to understand, to make sense of this thing, she looks around, her gaze raking the battlefield and the surrounding sand dunes. Her eyes scan the dune on the opposite side of the valley. The strange, eerie singing becomes louder._

_Nothing is there._

_It has to be there._

_She squints; something is there, but blurred, as if her vision cannot comprehend what her mind is screaming she should already know._

_Who's there?_

_Light flashes, and for a moment she almost sees, then her vision flares red._

_Then darkness. She is falling._

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

Professor Reardon's and Professor Kettleburn's joint classes on magical water creatures quickly became quite popular despite the fact that there was so much to learn. Kaysa and Chitral in particular seemed to enjoy the lessons, though both were acting strange, even for them. Sirius had noticed that, while Chitral seemed to be getting more and more tired; yawning and moody, and often falling asleep in class, Kaysa seemed to be becoming more and more restless. She was antsy, couldn't sit still, and had difficulty paying attention in classes. She also seemed a little more impulsive than usual; on Wednesday, in Transfiguration where they were supposed to be turning turtles into footstools, James teased Kaysa that this should be easier for her since turtles and footstools moved about the same amount anyway. Kaysa got annoyed with him and managed to partially transfigure his turtle into teakettle, which then belched hot steam in his face. The whole class laughed, even James, especially when Sirius took the opportunity to joke that he had always known James was full of hot air.

Professor McGonagall seemed half pleased, half annoyed; in the end, she only docked five points and made Kaysa swap turtles with James so that she would have to be the one to undo her own handiwork. Despite this, Kaysa seemed rather pleased with herself, though, given her usual struggles with Transfiguration, Sirius supposed he could understand. She did complain later, however, when they saw Lily telling Snape at lunch.

"I wish she wouldn't, you know?" said Kaysa, grimacing slightly as Snape looked over and smirked at James. "I mean, I know you and Snape hate each other and it's not like I like him or anything, but I'd really just as soon stay out of it if I can. It'd be kind of difficult to stay friendly with Lily if I end up enemies with her best friend."

"Oh, come on," Sirius chided her, not quite sure why she looked so bothered, "she can't really hold it against you, can she? No one else likes him either. Heather hates him and they're still friends."

"Yes, but Heather's not friends with you lot," said Chitral grumpily. "Lily still doesn't understand about that, you know. It's already a pain having to watch what we say about you guys around her. We really don't need to add issues with Snape into the mix."

Sirius frowned; he supposed he could understand that, but he wasn't really sure what them not wanting to get in the middle of it had to do with it. Beside him, James shrugged.

"Yeah, well," he said, "he is her friend. It's not like she'd going to stop telling him stuff."

"Why not?" Kaysa demanded. "We don't tell you stuff."

Sirius choked. "Are you kidding? You're like a walking encyclopedia of weird, random stuff."

Kaysa wrinkled her nose at him in what he had learned was a kind of mock-snarl — a version of sticking your tongue out at someone that better allowed you to keep talking.

"Shut up," she told him. "That's not what I meant. I meant, we don't tell you stuff about Snape, so why should she tell him stuff about you?"

James sighed.

"You know," he said, "it's not exactly as if he wouldn't have found out anyways. I mean, it was pretty funny. I'll bet the whole school knows by this time tomorrow."

Sirius thought that James had a point. Maybe it would be different if Lily had been telling Snape secrets, but not this. Kaysa didn't seem convinced though; she exchanged a look with Chitral, who half grimaced, half shrugged.

"Must be a human thing," she said.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it," Kaysa muttered mutinously.

"How'd you do it, anyway?" asked Peter suddenly. "I thought you had trouble with Transfiguration."

"I do," said Kaysa.

"Yeah, but you stopped it halfway through on purpose, didn't you?"

"Er, well, yeah," said Kaysa, looking a bit puzzled, as if this hadn't occurred to her before. "I guess I did."

"Cool!" said Peter. "I don't think I could do that."

Kaysa looked a bit happier. Sirius silently applauded his friend for finding just the thing to brighten her mood and distract her with. And, now that the other boy had brought it up, it was pretty impressive, especially for someone who still had difficulty with beetles to buttons. Of course, at this observation, James, who seemed to have decided to make Kaysa's trouble with Transfiguration a personal project of his, jumped on the subject, grilling Kaysa on how she'd done it, how it had felt, did she think she could do it again, and threatening to drill her later that night since it looked like she'd finally made a breakthrough, at which point Kaysa pulled out her wand and asked ever so sweetly if James would like her to Transfigure the remainder of his lunch into something that would gnaw his nose off as a demonstration. Fortunately the bell rang before James could answer — Sirius had the horrible feeling that his friend would have said yes out of sheer curiosity — and they left the Great Hall for a double period of Defense Against the Dark Arts, now a study of water-based magical creatures.

If, when Sirius had first come to school, someone had told him that, one day, he'd not only be glad of a double period, but actually enjoy it, he'd have said they were completely off their rocker, but the double period with both Kettleburn and Reardon proved to be both highly informative and highly enjoyable. Reardon and Kettleburn were fairly well matched; they both shared a level of enthusiasm for their subjects that Sirius though must be hard to find, as well a genuine liking for student questions and comments. Sirius had rarely been in a class where thoughts and ideas were tossed around like a much-abused Quaffle, and he could see why most teachers wouldn't like to do things that way. In a shorter class it probably wouldn't have worked — people seemed too likely to get off on tangents and the like — but with two whole hours to fill and both Reardon and Kettlburn to help steer the conversation, it worked pretty well. Sirius decided he quite like it.

It probably also helped that neither Professor was much for formality. True, Reardon preferred for students to raise their hands when he was talking, but once a conversation got going he didn't really complain much. Which was a good thing, Sirius reflected, as Kaysa interrupted for the fourth time in a row. She just didn't seem to be able to help herself anymore, though even that wasn't as bad as her constant jiggling. Sirius and the others, by unspoken agreement, were taking it in turns to sit next to her. Sirius really wished he hadn't drawn the two-hour slot; sitting next to someone who not only kept fidgeting and shaking the desk and seat but also kept emphasizing her words with motions that were far more exuberant than necessary was hardly fun.

It didn't help that Professor Kettleburn had brought in a new creature, a kelpie in a very large tank. From the way Kaysa kept leaning forward and staring at it, Sirius was pretty sure she was just dying to get a closer look at it. He supposed at least he couldn't blame her there. Kelpies, it turned out, were shape-changers as well, water daemons of a sort who could take pretty much any form they wanted, though according to Reardon and Kettleburn they usually chose to take the form of a horse. This one didn't seem to be able to make up its mind. Or maybe it just knew that it had an audience. Either way, it kept switching back and forth between several forms, including several types of fish-human mixes, a black horse with pointed teeth and forward-facing eyes, and something that was more or less human but with strange, rope-like bunches of hair that looked like it was made from some kind of underwater plant.

Every time it switched, Kaysa would startle a little, then glare at the creature, as if it was doing it on purpose. Finally, Sirius muttered to her, "Stop that, would you? You look like you have a case of Thelonius's Twitch or something."

"Shut up," Kaysa muttered back to him; she looked annoyed but her eyes were still fastened on the kelpie, which was once again a black horse. The kelpie switched its tail and tossed its head. Kaysa bared her teeth at it. Sirius stepped on her foot.

"Stop it!" he repeated. "What is this, some kind of predator thing?" Except that wouldn't make any sense, because he'd seen her with other creatures and she'd never been like this before.

"It's taunting me," Kaysa snapped indignantly, though she kept her voice low. Sirius raised an eyebrow at her. Kaysa made a face.

"If you could speak animal you would know," she told him. Then, showing her teeth to the kelpie one last time, she turned to Professor Reardon and put her hand in the air.

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

"What was up with you all class?" James asked Kaysa when class let out. "You were all twitchy and making faces the whole time."

"It was the kelpie," Sirius told him, straight-faced. "It was taunting her."

"Oh, shut up, you guys," Kaysa snapped as Sirius and the others all laughed. "Come on, Chitral, back me up here."

"Kaysa, I don't think it was teasing you in particular," her cousin said. "It was making fun of the whole class."

"You're not serious, are you?" James wanted to know. "I mean, come on, it's a water daemon. It doesn't talk. It wasn't talking."

"Not so _you'd_ understand, no," Kaysa conceded. "But Chi and me could understand. It was laughing at us. And they do speak, or they can."

"Really?" asked Remus. "Reardon or Kettleburn didn't say anything about —"

"I don't know if it's that they don't know or if it just didn't come up," said Kaysa, "but they can. Kelpies are good sources of information if you can get them to talk to you."

"And if you can compel them to be honest," added Chitral, rolling her eyes. "Which tends to be difficult since they'd mostly much rather just drown you and eat you."

Kaysa shrugged.

"There's ways," she said. "The Fay live by rules after all. They may not be our rules, but they're rules nonetheless. They can't break them."

"Yeah, whatever," said Peter. "Look, can we get some food before we start on our homework. I'm hungry and we have astronomy tonight too."

Kaysa wasn't sure what the one thing had to do with the other but she let it slide. She was hungry too anyway. Plus if the boys got some food in their mouths they'd stop asking so many questions and all, which would be nice. She wanted – needed – some time to think.

[I know,] the kelpie had laughed at her. [I know your answers.]

Well, great, she could use some answers. But what on earth was the question?

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

_Professor Binns floats at the front of the classroom, droning on about some statute to do with vampires. The class is startlingly silent, the only sound the scritch of their quills as they all take notes. She stares around, checks her watch. How long has she been here?_

_A fly buzzes in the window, trapped, just like her, but still trying to escape to the bright sky outside. She can hardly blame the fly; the late afternoon sun is a soft yellow, warm and inviting._

_Afternoon?_

_She checks her watch again, but the face has no numbers. How odd. She looks back up at Professor Binns, but he's not there anymore. Instead, she looks into the handsome face and dark green eyes of Teregon, one of her teachers from home. She blinks, looks around quick. She can't tell now where she is. It looks like the History of Magic classroom, but it isn't. It can't be. The view outside is of the tree-sparse, golden plains of her homeland. Her classmates are an odd mix of her Hogwarts fellows and of her old littermates; none of them seem to have noticed anything strange, and, truthfully, she's more curious than worried now that she thinks of it._

_Teregon is telling them something. No, he is showing them. She smiles and settles back to watch the projection. This is much better. This is how history and culture ought to be taught._

_The image is of Mur'arktha, a watery world in the Denek system. It has never been populated by humans or humanoids so its history is interesting. The projection shows how its chief inhabitants, a large species of sentient ray called the Khemaarni, evolved over time as the landmasses on their world were slowly eaten up by the ever-growing ocean._

_The image changes. She frowns. The Khemaarni are peaceful. Why are they fighting? So much death. So much sand._

_Sand? She stares, finds herself in a desert again. The scent of blood fills her nose. A sound, like ringing, like singing fills her ears — her mind. Yet she is still in the classroom and all this death and confusion only in the projected image._

_None of her classmates seem to have noticed. Teregon hasn't either. Perhaps she has misunderstood something…_

_Teregon's eyes find hers, and he is at once himself, yet somehow not. His mouth forms words. _Pay attention, _he is saying. _Pay attention.

_Pay attention to what?_

_She looks back at the image of the desert battle floating at the front of the room. One of the impossibly battling Khemaari turns. Looks right at her._

_Its eyes are blood-red._

* * *

A/N: again, i'm not entirely sure that this came out quite right. i would really love some feedback here. please?

hope you're all enjoying this.

Cheers!

~SilverKit


	16. Omega's Value

Disclaimer: I am broke college student. I own nothing.

A/N: hello. Hope your all still enjoying this. I know it's long. And I promise to try and have the next chap up sooner rather than later (though i'm sure you've all noticed...there's this thing. called timeliness. i don't have it. sorry... but i'll try, i promise!). Anyway, it occurs to me that Kaysa and Chitral use some odd phrases. just in case anyone was wondering or confused they do actually mean something:

"Stars" or "Oh Stars": an general, more or less all-purpose expletive rather akin to the English "god" or "oh god"

"Stars all": also an expletive, but stronger or more emphatic than "stars." it is the abbreviated version of a longer phrase or oath meaning something along the lines of "Of all the places/people/situations/things in the cosmos, why this now and to me?" the translative "stars" comes from the fact that it is a rather archaic expression and so the phrase "in the cosmos" is more appropriately something like "under the stars" or "in the sight of the stars"

and, yeah, I know, I put waaay too much thought into that. What can I say, I'm a total nerd ^_^

and now that i'm done with this horribly long A/N, please read and enjoy. as always, please feel free to leave me reviews, messages, thoughts, or questions

~SilverKit

* * *

**Omega's Value**

_She is dancing. Dancing on the sky. It is beautiful, full of stars and moonlight. She has never had a better backdrop to a dance._

_Whirl, spin, twist, stop. Bend and again. Leap._

_Land._

_Sand. Sand everywhere. Sand reflecting the sky, the stars, the moonlight. How strange._

_There are footprints. They're not hers. She knows because they are not barefoot prints. Curious, she follows them. Over one dune and around another. Between the shelves._

_Shelves? Endless dunes are become endless shelves. How strange._

_She follows the footprints on their winding way through the stacks, back and back then down a long isle._

_The prints turn a corner. A high-pitched keening is in her ears. The scent of blood fills her nostrils._

_She runs to see, races around the corner._

_Sand. Endless shelves are become endless dunes once again. The desert reflects the sky._

_****__o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_  


"Hey, Sirius, what were you looking at in the back of that bookshop?"

"Huh?" said Sirius blankly, pulling back from his telescope to look curiously at his friend. It was just after midnight and the Gryffindors were up in the astronomy tower working on their star-charts.

"You know," said Kaysa. "That used bookshop that you showed us over Christmas break? You were looking at something in the back. I was going to make you show me what but then I forgot after…"

"After your brain-attack?" Sirius finished for her. "Not surprised."

Kaysa sighed audibly.

"It wasn't a brain-attack," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "My ears just started ringing is all."

Sirius fixed her with a firm eye.

"People whose ears start ringing don't suddenly stop being aware of everything around them," he said, a tad more sharply than he had intended but he couldn't help it; she'd scared him, going all catatonic like that. Kaysa just snorted. Didn't she take her own well being seriously at all?

"Well, they don't," he insisted. "Anyway, I thought you said it was a sound in your mind."

"No, I said it was in my head," Kaysa corrected him. "I just meant that plugging my ears didn't work so it must not have been a sound on the air, is all. Anyway, quit trying to distract me. What was in the back that had you fascinated for so long while I looked at books for Remus?"

"Nothing much, really," said Sirius, avoiding her gaze. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell her, precisely, he just didn't want her to make fun of him. "Just some old stuff, you know?"

"Old stuff in a used bookshop," Kaysa mused, a small smile playing on her lips. "What a novel concept."

"Shut up," Sirius told her. "I mean like really old."

"Like, where the f's are s's kind of old?" Kaysa asked.

Wondering vaguely who'd explained that one to her, Sirius shook his head. "Older. I think from before English was even a language."

Kaysa bit her lip. "Er… that's a really long time ago, right?"

Sirius grinned. "Yeah. The shelf is full of these old scrolls. I think most of them are from Egypt."

"Egypt?" Kaysa echoed.

"Yeah," said Sirius. "At least, I'm pretty sure. I recognize some of the symbols, anyway. Not that I can read any of it," he added, catching her look, "I just know they're Egyptian. Wish I could read it, though. Some of it looks really interesting."

Kaysa frowned at this.

"How can you know it looks interesting if you can't read it?" she wanted to know.

"Some of them have pictures to go along with the words," Sirius explained eagerly, glad to have someone he could share this with. "They're simple, and really . . . . well, they're in a pretty weird style, so it's hard to tell sometimes what they're supposed to be, but it's still pretty cool."

"What do the pictures look like?"

"Well," said Sirius, scratching his head and frowning, "I mean, like I said, a lot of it's hard to tell. And some of it's stuff I've never even heard of. Like there's some of things with human bodies, but then with heads that I think are supposed to be different animals or something, but then there's other stuff too and a lot of it's faded so it's even harder to tell. And the style makes it harder too. Like, there was this one that I thought was of a gryphon, but now I'm not so sure. The head's not quite right; really it looks more like a really big cat with wings or something. And not a cat cat, but like a wild one, you know? Like a lion or a jaguar or something."

"Cool," said Kaysa, grinning at him.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, grinning back at her. He'd thought she might like that one. Then he frowned. "I don't know why there'd be something like that in an Egyptian scroll though," he said. "I mean, I don't think wild cats could live there. It's mostly just desert."

"More work, less talk please, Mr. Black, Miss Kaysa," said the somehow quiet yet carrying voice of Dafira Alioc, the Astronomy professor, making both Kaysa and Sirius jump. "Those charts are due next week, you know."

"Yes, Professor," they said together. Sirius sighed and turned back to his telescope. He wished Professor Alioc would tell them about some of the myths that went with some of the stars while they worked; it might make the class a bit more interesting.

"So how old do you reckon these scrolls are, exactly?" Kaysa asked him furtively as Professor Alioc leaned over Heather Anderson's chart.

Sirius looked sideways at her, then shrugged.

"No idea," he whispered back. "Pretty old, though. I can't even tell what the paper's made out of. Probably from B.C.."

"What's B.C.?" asked Kaysa blankly.

Sirius sighed. "BC is an era," he said patiently and wishing she had asked Remus about this one. "It means anything from before one thousand nine hundred and seventy-three years ago."

Kaysa's brows furrowed and her mouth opened.

"Look," said Sirius flatly, "all I can tell you is that it's where they decided to start counting forwards instead of backwards. Get Remus to explain it better, okay?"

Kaysa flashed him a grin and nodded, then went back to her star-chart. Sirius sighed dramatic relief, then followed suite.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

When Friday afternoon found him and his friends in the library working, Sirius began to think that there was seriously some kind of magic going on. Not because they were working, of course; this being a school, that did tend to happen. No, the part that was so unbelievable was that no one was complaining.

On Thursday, Professors Reardon and Kettleburn had assigned them a paper, to be done on a topic of their choosing provided that it pertained to magical water creatures, and to be at least twelve inches long. No one had groaned at this pronouncement. Or even rolled their eyes. Instead, there had been a few questions on how the paper was to be structured and how narrow or broad topics could be (finally Professor Kettleburn had said to "just pick something and report on everything that they knew and/or could find out about it"), and that had been it.

Even stranger, the paper wasn't even due until next Wednesday. But Sirius, James, Remus, and even Peter had all agreed with very little protest when Kaysa and Chitral had wanted to get started early.

And, with no particular form to adhere to, Sirius was honestly starting to think that he could even enjoy this.

Damn, bloody magic!

His only complaint was that he had wanted to do kelpies but Kaysa claimed she already had dibs. He didn't see why they couldn't both report on the creatures, but Kaysa insisted and Sirius really didn't feel like it was worth the argument so he had let it drop. Remembering one of the girls mentioning months earlier that the merfolk had a telepathic component to their communication forms, he decided to do his paper on them, instead, and was well please when he realized that, because merfolk often domesticated or made use of so many other aquatic creatures, this meant that the scope of his paper was very open, a good thing if you wanted to fill up twelve inches of parchment.

As for the others, James had decided to research kappas (he said he was curious as to why they apparently liked cucumbers so much), Peter, who had an uncle or something who had been big into fishing, had chosen to do his paper on magical fish, including shrakes, remoras, and something called an abaia; a very large eel often used by wizards much as sheepdogs were by Muggle herdsmen or farmers. Remus, of course, had yet to pick a topic, but was, instead, cheerfully skimming though every book he could get his hands on, apparently waiting for inspiration to strike. Chitral had chosen water spites. This had evidently annoyed Lily, who had also wanted to do them, which was why it had been Sirius and his friends that the girls had hit up for this particular study session, rather than Lily and Heather.

"I mean, I said we could do the same thing and it probably wouldn't be a problem," Chitral told them. "Hell, I even offered to switch, if she wanted it that badly. But she refused, said not to bother, she'd just pick something else, but I think she was kinda mad about it."

"Don't be silly, Chi," said Kaysa, dumping a pile of books on the table and taking a seat. "She was just disappointed. And then I think she felt guilty for complaining when you offered to switch."

"Yeah, well, either way, it made me uncomfortable being around her about it," Chitral mumbled, she looked half irritated, half just plain glum. "Anyway, it's stupid. She shouldn't feel bad about it. I wouldn't have offered to change if I wasn't willing to do so."

"Humans," Kasya said with a shrug. "Accepting accommodations makes you weak if you need them and a bully if you don't."

Chitral snorted. Sirius frowned.

"Not always, surely," Remus protested, voicing Sirius's thought.

"I suppose I may be generalizing," Kaysa allowed. "Prove me wrong, then. When is this not so?"

As Remus thought, Sirius wondered if anyone else had noticed that Kaysa's speech tended to become more formal when she talked about the cultural or special differences between humans and her own people. Or even just when she was arguing with somebody. Not that it really mattered, it was just interesting. Why did she do it? Did she do it on purpose for something, or did she not even notice?

Next to him, Remus sighed and shook his head.

"Alright, fine, so I can't think of any examples of the top of my head," he said. "But that doesn't mean I'm wrong, Kaysa. And, anyway, it's not like we actually think of it like that."

"Isn't that what it means to be cultural, though?" asked Kaysa. "To be built in? So you don't even have to think about it? I mean, certainly there was stuff I never thought about til we came here," she added, indicating herself and Chitral.

"Maybe," Remus conceded, "but I still think you're really over-generalizing."

Sirius, thinking of how much he would hate it to actually _need _help with something — to be completely helpless without the assistance of someone else — wasn't so sure about that. But he didn't want to have an argument about it and, anyway, the comment begged an interesting question.

"Even if she's not," he said, waving Remus off and looking back and forth at Kaysa and Chitral, "does that mean that it isn't like that for your people?"

Chitral frowned and put her head to one side. Kaysa chewed her lip, tapping her quill against her parchment as she thought.

"No-o," Chitral said at last, still frowning some. "No, I think it is that way for us some. But —"

"But," Kaysa continued, picking up as Chitral trailed off, "it's different, somehow. We see it differently. For us, weakness is not necessarily a negative thing. Perfect self-sufficiency is neither required nor even expected, really. So long as the ones you are with are people you trust then it is not a problem. Nor is it ever assumed that weakness or lack of knowledge in one area equals weakness or lack of knowledge in all areas. I think it's a hierarchy thing."

"Kaysa, humans _are _hierarchical," Chitral said.

"Well, yes," said Kaysa, "but they pretend that they aren't."

"Too bad that means accepting a favor from a friend is somehow bad," muttered Chitral.

"Don't worry about it," said James bracingly, clapping her on the shoulder. "I'm sure she'll get over it."

"Of course she will," said Kaysa, rolling her eyes. "I mean, she forgave us for being friends with this unruly lot, didn't she?"

Sirius and his friends all grinned. Across from him, James crossed his eyes, winning a small smile from Chitral.

"Anyway," Kaysa continued, "I'd worry more about her friend, Heather. I'm not sure she really likes us all that much."

"Yeah, well," said Chitral, "I'm not so sure I really like her all that much myself. I mean, she's a little stuck up, you know?"

Kaysa and Chitral stared at one another for a moment then, inexplicably, began to laugh.

"Stars all, we should just give up right now, shouldn't we?" said Kaysa, thumping the table.

"It would certainly be much easier," Chitral agreed, shaking her head.

"Er, some of us aren't laughing," James complained.

"Yeah," said Sirius. "Care to let us in on the joke?"

"Well," said Kaysa, "it's just that, we like Lily fine, but we don't seem to much like her other friends or they don't much care for us. . . ."

"Yeah, and ditto that per her and her other friends' feelings about us or our other friends," Chitral finished, gesturing to Sirius and the others.

"So really," Kaysa concluded, "it'll probably be a miracle if we're all still friends when we graduate. Or, hell, even by the time we take our O.W.L.s., don't you think?"

"Oh," said Sirius. "Okay." He wasn't quite sure why this was so funny, except perhaps from a purely ironical standpoint. But then again, he thought, Kaysa's humor always had tended to run that way, and at least Chitral seemed happy again. He turned back the book he was reading. He still hadn't found anything to support Kaysa and Chitral's claim that merfolk possessed a mild form of telepathy.

Of course, that probably just meant that wizards didn't know about it. Well, if they didn't want it known then he wouldn't give it away. Still, he'd keep an eye out.

"Hey, Remus," said Kaysa after a few minutes, "what's with those symbols we've been seeing in Arithmancy lately? I've never seen them before and they're not numbers."

"No, they're letters," said Remus, looking up from the book he was pouring over.

"Letters?" echoed Kaysa, tilting her head quizzically. "They don't look like any letters I've ever seen."

"That's because they're Greek," Remus told her. "Old Greek. I'm not sure that alphabet is even used for anything outside of math and such anymore."

"Not that this isn't fascinating," James drawled as Kaysa opened her mouth again, "but is it really necessary to talk about it just now? I'm thought we were trying to get work done here."

Sirius turned to stare at his friend. "I can't believe that just came out of your mouth."

"But I want to know!" said Kaysa, talking over him. "They're weird and interesting."

"Kaysa," said Sirius, rolling his eyes, "you think everything is weird and interesting."

"You haven't seen these," Kaysa argued back. "They don't look anything like normal letters. There's one that looks like a wavy pitchfork and another that's just a triangle and then one that looks like a horseshoe —"

"I know that one," said Peter suddenly. "I think… It looks like this?"

He scratched out a symbol that looked to Sirius like an 'O' open at the bottom with feet. Kaysa inspected it and nodded.

"That's it," she said.

"It's called omega," Peter told her. "It's supposed to mean the end."

"End of what?" Kaysa wanted to know. "And why?"

"I don't know," Peter shrugged. "I think it's the last letter. Maybe that's why."

"Huh, that would make sense, I guess," said Kaysa. "Matches with half of what Professor Vector told us too; she said it can indicate an end to something, but can also just be there to emphasize something else. Dunno what that last bit's all about."

"Hmm," mused Remus, looking interested now. "Perhaps it meant something once?"

"Do the names of letters mean things?" asked Kaysa curiously. "I mean, I've heard of other places where everything means things, but I didn't that was here, too —"

"Are you all seriously having a conversation about this?" asked Sirius incredulously.

"Yeah," James seconded him. "I mean, Kaysa makes sense, she's always like that. But I didn't' think it was catching."

"Shut up," said Kaysa, "You forget that your world is still basically new to me. Chi and me have only been here two and half years and we've never had anyone but the teachers to explain things before."

"Maybe," said James, "but I bet even on your Homeworld you wouldn't stop asking questions."

"Oh, never," said Chitral. "Our old teachers both loved and hated it."

"I'll bet," said Sirius. "Anyway, what's going on this weekend? Anything good?"

"Quidditch practice," said James at once. "Neal and Kynthia booked the pitch for the whole afternoon. We're playing Slytherin in three weeks."

"Oh, that's right," said Chitral. "I'd forgotten."

"Should be a good match," said James enthusiastically. "Any of you guys want to watch the practice? The weather this weekend is supposed to be decent."

"Yeah, okay," said Sirius. He would way rather watch his friends fly than do homework and he didn't have so much homework that he couldn't.

"Sure," said Chitral, shrugging. "We've gotten an early start on all this work anyway, I don't see why not."

Remus nodded his agreement. Kaysa sighed.

"I don't think I can," she said. "I've been putting a few things off."

"Me too," said Peter glumly. "And it's hard stuff, too."

"Oh," said James, looking slightly surprised that Peter, who hardly ever said no when James wanted an audience, actually couldn't come. Then he shrugged. "Well, alright, if you're sure, I guess."

Peter hung his head.

"It's not like I don't want to go," he mumbled.

Sirius rolled his eyes; why was Peter so clearly bummed out by something so stupid? It wasn't like James really cared all that much; he just liked to have an audience. Kaysa seemed to have noticed Peter's mood as well because she kicked James under the table.

"Ow!" James yelped, looking around.

"Never mind, Peter," said Kaysa bracingly, shooting James a dirty look. "We'll work together. Maybe, if we do, we can make the end of the practice."

Peter brightened.

"Yeah, okay," he said. "Thanks, Kaysa."

"Ow," James complained again, looking reproachfully at the girl. "Kays, what was that for?"

"For being an insensitive wart."

"Wha— I am not!" James protested rather loudly. "What are you talking about?"

Kaysa made no answer. James looked up and spotted Sirius watching them.

"Well, what's she on about?" he demanded.

Sirius blinked. He looked at James, and then at Kaysa, and then back again. And there were some places, he realized, you just didn't go.

"Leave me out of it," he said quickly, grabbing a book and opening it at random. "I'm just here to study."

In the laughter that ensued, the question — and any leftover tension — was forgotten.

_**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**_

_She is hunting. She is running. She is dancing. She is leaping._

_The desert. Again, the desert. Again the endless sea of dunes. Again the rows and rows of shelves. She heads for the back (back of what?), looking, searching. For her prey. For the answers. For anything that might help her, might give her some clue as to what to do next._

_She finds nothing. Again and again, nothing._

_The air moves impossibly. From her back she smells smoke. Before her all smells of blood._

_Where is the fire? Whose blood? Who else is here?_

_Without thinking she runs, races forward. Whose blood is it? Why can't she tell? She should be able to tell!_

_She follows the scent, tops a crest. Stops. Stares, confused._

_The valley is empty. Nothing is there. No one is there. No fight, no people, no blood. But she can still smell it._

_Another scent touches her nostrils and she whips around, bearing her teeth at the daemon who deals in secrets and in death._

_The kelpie-horse grins its mouthful of pointed teeth at her, the tiny red points in its pupils standing out horribly against its black eyes. The desert is gone; they are standing on the night sky and she knows that this, at least, is real._

_[I know,] it tells her. [I know the answers. I can tell you what you seek.]_

_She growls, suspicious._

_[You lie,] she says._

_[I cannot,] the kelpie replies. [No Fay can.]_

_She flicks an ear, indecisive._

_[What would these answers cost me?] she asks at last._

_The kelpie regards her for a moment, switches its tail, then stands straight and raises its head; proud, authoritative, demanding._

_[My freedom!]_

**_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_**

Saturday dawned bright and sunny, but a few scattered clouds. Kaysa would have thought that one would want all sun for Quidditch but James said that the clouds would help keep the sun from reflecting off the snow and blinding him and the others too much. Kaysa could see the sense in this, but her more feline side wanted to know why the players couldn't just wear tinted lenses or something so then she could lie in the sun.

Really, she supposed as they all sat down for a quick lunch, it didn't matter. She couldn't take it up with the weather anyway and besides, she had things to do.

"Do you really think we'll be able to finish in time to make it to part of the practice?" Peter asked her as they waved good-bye to James and the others before making their way back up to Gryffindor Tower.

Kaysa shrugged then caught Peter's expression. He really did want to go, she realized. Damn.

But maybe, if they worked fast and if she cheated just a bit with getting to the village, then maybe she could still get him back in time to see part of the practice. Maybe.

Kaysa looked over into Peter's upturned, hopeful face. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.

"We can try," she said. "Come on." She turned and marched up the stairs, Peter hurrying along behind her. She would get this finished in time to get him to the practice or she wasn't the girl she thought she was.

Two minutes later, standing in front of a table in the Gryffindor common room and confronted with the amount of work she and Peter had to get through, Kaysa was forced to consider that she might not be the girl she thought she was.

"Stars all," she muttered. "How do we let ourselves get this far behind?"

"Sorry," Peter mumbled shamefacedly, surveying the table. "It's hopeless, isn't it?"

"Won't know til we try," said Kaysa grimly. She pulled out a chair, sat down, silently cursed herself, wished briefly for Remus, then grabbed her quill and inkbottle and her essay for Potions.

Peter sat down next to her, looking overwhelmed. "How are we supposed to get through all this?"

"The same way you get through anything," Kaysa replied. "One step at a time."

**_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_**

"They'll be alright, won't they? Alone, I mean."

"Would you stop worrying already?" said Sirius impatiently. "It's not like they're little kids."

"I know that! It's just…"

Sat between them, Chitral sighed and rubbed her temples.

"Would you both just knock it off?" she said. "Honestly! Remus, of course they'll be fine. They have homework, not a date with a dragon." Although, knowing Kaysa that second one would probably be easier…

"Told you," said Sirius triumphantly. Chitral elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"You're not helping," she informed him.

"Ouch," Sirius complained. "This coat isn't as thick as it looks, you know."

Chitral rolled her eyes. "I thought we were supposed to be enjoying the sun and watching James. Not arguing."

"Sorry," said Remus, looking sheepish. "I guess I just feel bad for leaving Peter and Kaysa behind."

"You'd feel worse if they failed an assignment because we dragged them along to have fun," Chitral pointed out. She was slightly confused by his reasoning; she could understand feeling bad that they were getting to have fun while Kaysa and Peter were trapped inside working, but she didn't quite get why Remus also apparently felt bad for having left them to it. Making them come would have only kept them from their work, which needed to be done, and staying behind would have only served to distract their friends, not to mention make them feel guilty for keeping them.

"How are we looking?"

Chitral looked up to find James flying low over the stands by them, his cheeks flushed form the cold and a happy grin on his face. She smiled back. Strangely, this was part of what had first made her think that there might be more to James than just cocky recklessness. Although he clearly enjoyed the attention he got for being such a good player, it was also obvious that James loved the game and loved flying. Watching him play, seeing that genuine, carefree smile on his face, Chitral had found it impossible to truly dislike the boy.

"Looks good, James," Sirius hollered back, giving his friend the thumbs up. "You'll crush Slytherin in the match for sure."

"Well, I hope they don't make it too easy," James laughed. "I could do with a good challenge."

"Speak for yourself," said Kynthia who had flown over with Neal to see what was going on. "That Palmer kid was quite enough challenge for me, thanks."

"Aw, give yourself more credit than that, Kynth," said Neal bracingly. "We were all surprised by Palmer. But we've seen this year's Slytherin line up."

"Yeah, and they crushed Ravenclaw in that second match," Kynthia reminded her captain.

"Only because Ravenclaw's usual Seeker was ill and they had to use a backup," Sirius called up. "Bails is nowhere close to your level. You'll be fine. It's their Beaters you'll have to watch. They're ruthless this year."

"I'm sure Jason and Xander can handle them," said Neal, grinning over his shoulder at his two Beaters. By now the whole of the Gryffindor team had come to hover over their small audience.

"Anyone got any food?" asked Rigel hopefully. "I'm starving!"

Merga Fitzgerald laughed and dug into her bag. "Here, catch!" she shouted, tossing him something. Rigel caught it handily.

"Sandwiches. Excellent!"

"Anyone else hungry?" asked Merga dryly. Hands went up and she and Frank Longbottom began tossing sandwiches out to the rest of the team.

"Don't suppose you thought to bring out some water too, did you?" asked James.

Merga grinned and began pulling water bottles out her bag. James threw both his hands into the air.

"Merga, you are absolutely amazing!" he said as she tossed him one. "No, really. Truly amazing."

Chitral laughed and shook her head. "Does this usually happen at practices?" she asked Sirius and Remus.

"Not that I know of," said Remus smiling faintly. "But then I don't come to very many of these practices."

"It's been known to happen," said Sirius from her other side. "Not always, but sometimes, at the longer practices. Merga likes to keep the team fed, especially when it's cold or rainy."

"Really?" asked Remus, sounding surprised. "I mean, it seems more like the sort of thing Kynthia would do."

"Yeah, but Merga's parents are healers," said Sirius. "That sort of thing tends to carry over, you know?"

Chitral nodded her understanding. She didn't think much of wizard healers as a rule, but they had to know something or there wouldn't be much of the wizarding world left. They were insanely accident-prone. It seemed to be an unavoidable by-product of mixing humans and magic. Or most anything and magic, really.

"Peter and Kaysa not here yet?" asked James as the rest of the team tossed their water bottles back to Frank and Merga and flew off again.

"Nope," said Sirius. "Not yet. They only said they might make it, you know."

"I know," said James, giving Sirius an odd look. "I was just asking. Hope they do make it though. This has to better than work."

"Here, here," said Chitral earning some laughter from the boys. As James flew off again to rejoin the practice she yawned and tried to lean back in her seat only to sit right back up again with a yelp as she felt the empty air behind her and remembered that the benches in the stands had no backs.

"Are you all right?" asked Remus turning to give her a startled look.

"Fine," Chitral muttered, blushing and glowering at her knees. "Just forgot this is a bench and not a chair."

She had thought that Sirius, at least, would laugh at her, but instead he too turned to look at her and said, "Are you sure you're all right? You've been acting odd all week. You and Kaysa both."

Chitral blinked at him, surprised but rather touched that he had noticed.

"I'm just tired," she assured him, smiling ruefully. "And Kaysa's always been weird."

"I know," said Sirius, "I meant weirder than usual, though."

Chitral sighed. "I've known her a lot longer than you have," she said, placing her elbows on her knees and resting her chin in her hands. "I wouldn't worry about it too much. Sometimes it's just one of those weeks. Full moon's coming up, maybe that's what's going on."

Beside her, Remus groaned quietly.

"Sorry," she said, wincing at her tactlessness.

"Not your fault," Remus told her with a shrug. Then he grinned. "It's not a bad theory, you know. Full moon's been known to make people act a mite different than usual."

Sirius laughed. So did Chitral. She was surprised but glad that he could joke about it. She knew there was still something about the whole werewolf thing that she was missing, and she didn't want to ask straight out since it seemed like a sensitive subject, but she knew the changes were painful for her friend. But as long as he could still laugh it was probably okay.

"Mmm, very true," she said, smiling back at Remus. Then she laughed. "But I still think Kaysa's just always been nuts."

**_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_**

"You want to go to Hogsmeade? Now? Are you nuts?"

Kaysa sighed. She supposed she should have seen this coming.

"Probably," she said, "but so's everyone else you know. Anyway, that's not the point."

"But — but it's three o'clock," Peter protested. "The practice will be over by four for sure."

"This won't take long," Kaysa promised, wishing that there had been less work to get through. She was still rather amazed that they had gotten through all of it in time.

"But why now?" Peter wanted to know. "Why not wait for everyone else? You know they'd love to sneak out again."

Kaysa shook her head. "It's a secret," she improvised, not quite lying. "I don't want the others to know yet; it's sort of . . . . a surprise."

"Then why are you telling me?" Peter reasoned.

"Because I can't do this alone," Kaysa told him. This, at least, was entirely true. She needed him. Just in case.

Peter bit his lip, wavering.

"We'll be quick, I promise," Kaysa wheedled. "I know exactly what I'm looking for. It shouldn't take long."

"Alright," Peter said at last. "Alright, I'll come. But can we please try to be back before four? I don't want James to think we skipped out on him."

Kaysa grinned. "We'll run."

"What kind of surprise is this supposed to be?" Peter asked fifteen minutes later as he followed Kaysa into Alexander's Used Books in Hogsmeade.

"The surprising kind," Kaysa muttered irritably, glancing at the front desk to make sure the store clerk wasn't watching them too closely, then, "Come on," she said quietly, making her way through the stacks towards the isle at the back. Then she stopped.

"What are we looking for?" Peter asked as she stood there looking back and forth, trying to remember.

"There's only books here," Peter went on, sounding mystified. "Books and dust and should we even be here? Last time you were here you —"

He stopped. Frowned. Watery-blue eyes narrowed and darted about the shop.

"What?" said Kaysa.

"That's it, isn't it?" said Peter, turning to glare up at her. "That's why we're here. You want to know what did it! You wanted to know what made you all, all —" he waved his hands around vaguely, "— all, you know, and you brought me instead of the others because you thought I wouldn't argue."

Kaysa sighed. "Yes, and no," she said, wishing she'd remembered about this bit of human thinking. He was right, sort of; he wasn't like the others. He wasn't a One — an alpha, a leader — and that was why she'd needed him, but it wasn't like _that_. He thought she wanted him because she could dominate him. He also thought that this made him weak compared to the others. What he didn't see was that actually his ability — even tendency — to follow, rather than lead, made him invaluable. It meant than in an argument his might be the swing-vote. That his words or his actions might the only things capable of dispelling tension. He was something that his friends would always be able to agree on, and that gave him power. It was different from James's charisma or her snarls or Chitral's stubbornness, but it was power and it was real.

But Kaysa didn't have time to explain all that to him right now, and, even if she did, she wasn't sure if it was something he'd understand. She wasn't sure if it was a human thing or an age thing, but the one time she'd tried to talk to Lily about social dynamics the girl had given her the weirdest look and Kaysa had dropped the subject fairly quickly after that.

"Yes and no?" Peter repeated. He still looked angry. "What's that supposed to mean? Yes, we're here because you want to know about your ears ringing but no, I'm not here just because you thought I wouldn't argue about it, or yes, all of that but no, that's not how you meant it?"

"It's not that simple," Kaysa told him. "I didn't bring you because I thought you wouldn't argue. You'd all argue. That's just a given. But you'll stay."

"All my best friends are great rule-breakers," Peter retorted. "What makes you think I'll be so obedient?"

Kaysa huffed air through her nose impatiently. You'd think as herd-like an animal as humans made they'd get this kind of thing better.

"Peter, if all I needed was someone I could scare into doing what I wanted I could have brought any old person. I need _you_. I trust _you_. I trust you to stay and make sure that I'm okay. That help comes if anything happens."

"But—" Peter began but Kaysa cut him off. He looked worried now.

"Peter, please," she begged, pressing her advantage. "It's important. I don't know why, but it is. I _need_ to know what happened to me."

Peter bit his lip then, "Fine," he said, caving. "But if anything does happen don't think I'll back you up when James and Sirius chew you out for this."

"Thank you," said Kaysa, meaning it. "And that's fine, I'm pretty sure I can handle the others being angry." Though she did wonder that he'd mentioned Sirius rather than Chitral, from whom she expected to get an earful no matter how this turned out.

"Anyway," she continued as she turned and began walking down the isle like she had that first time, "It's not like I really expect anything bad to happen. But still, safety first, right?"

Peter just gave her a sour look and followed her in silence. Kaysa sighed inwardly and kept walking. Waiting, waiting…

She pulled up abruptly as that same high-pitched keening filled her ears — her mind — once more.

"Kaysa?" Peter hurried to her side, looking concerned.

"It's okay," Kaysa managed to tell him, wincing and shaking her head. "I'm prepared for it this time. I can handle it."

She could, barely, if she concentrated hard. Shaking her head again, trying hard not to let that sound overwhelm her, she started walking again, carefully placing one foot in front of the other. Peter followed, close but not quite crowding. When the strange, almost-singing not-quite-screaming intensified, she turned a corner and found herself face to face with the shelf of scrolls Sirius had told her about. She stopped and crouched down in front of it.

The ringing in her head wasn't distracting anymore. Instead it seemed to blot out all other distractions. This was where she needed to be, this was what she needed to be doing. Oblivious now to Peter's nervous questions and looks — or indeed even to his presence — she reached out a hand, not quite touching the fragile-looking scrolls, moving it back and forth, waiting for the noise to tell her which one.

No. No. No. Ah. There. Right there. That one.

Her hand moved, closing around the rough papyrus paper of the scroll—

Peter saw her eyes roll up and her body go limp and start to fall. Rushing forward to try and catch her so she wouldn't hurt herself — fear making him forget that she probably couldn't — he seized for the feeling he remembered from speaking to her and the others with only his mind and screamed for Chitral as loud as he could.


	17. Fits of Temper

Disclaimer: I am broke college student. I own nothing.

A/N: i should really learn not to take on so many projects at once. i apologize. please enjoy. please feel free to comment.

cheers

~SilverKit

* * *

_**Fits of Temper**_

* * *

"Ouch!"

"What?"

"Nothing, sorry. Just a bit . . . sore."

"Huh! You think _you_ hurt, _I_ was riding up front."

"Never mind your arses, what the blazes was she thinking? I mean, really. What. Was. She—"

Words. Those were words. But they didn't sound quite right…

"No, really, I think I've got permanent—"

"— don't know. She didn't say. Not really."

"Why not? Why didn't you ask?"

"— permanent damage here —"

"— I did. But — I — she — trying to be fast — make it to the practice…"

"It is not _my _fault you can't sit proper—"

Voices. Familiar voices.

"The practice? The practice! You got through all that work —"

" — 'sides, how do you think I felt with you lot jolting all over?"

"— and then snuck into Hogsmeade —"

"You couldn't have jolted less?"

"— still thought you were going to make it to the practice?"

"I — no, it — she said, she promised —"

They had names, those voices. She knew they did. She was also fairly certain that they usually made more sense.

"Oh, I see. She _promised —_"

"Why didn't you stop her, Peter? Why—"

"Oh, shove it, both of you. You couldn't have stopped her either. _I _couldn't have stopped her."

Kaysa opened her eyes, and wondered when she had shut them. She didn't remember closing her eyes.

"Guys?" The familiar voice sounded unusually strained. "Guys, look."

"She's awake!"

"Oh, thank god."

"Yeah, well, good. 'Cause I'm gonna kill her."

Kaysa blinked, decided to disregard that last statement on the grounds that it was ridiculous, and concentrated on a far more pressing matter. She sat up and looked around. Chitral, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter crowded around her, all wearing varying expressions of anger and relief.

"What happened?" she asked.

Anger and relief was quickly replaced by shock.

"You don't remember?" That was James. And a stupid question.

"Would I ask if I did?" she retorted sharply. Hazel eyes glowered at her.

"You passed out on us is what happened," he told her sharply. "I can't believe you went back to that store, on purpose—"

But Kaysa wasn't paying attention any more. Because she'd just realized where she was. Flinging off the sheet Kaysa leapt to her feet. Some small part of her brain registered with disappointment that this was far too easily done; beds should be all bouncy and squashy, not firm enough to truly leap up from.

"This is the Hospital Wing." It wasn't a question.

"What else were we suppose to do —?" James began. Kaysa dropped to a crouch in front of him and seized him by the collar of his robes.

"Was this your idea?" she demanded, baring her teeth at him and trying to pin the ears she knew she didn't have in this shape. She had the vague notion that she was angrier than she should have been, but she didn't seem to have space in her head to figure it out for sure just now.

"You were passed out," James said stubbornly. He kept his cool very well but she could smell his fear-scent. It was intoxicating. It shouldn't have been. But it was. Leaning in til they were almost nose-to-nose, she growled.

"Never put me in one of these places again," she said, her voice hard and low, "or I swear by the eyes of the Keeper —"

"Kaysa," Chitral said sharply. Kaysa twisted her head around to stare at her cousin. She felt feral, wild. She felt trapped. She felt like the most powerful creature on earth. She wanted to leap into the sky and fly forever, higher than anything. She wanted to set fire to something and watch it burn.

"Kaysa," Chitral said again, "we had to do something."

Kaysa snarled, struggling to hold her human form.

"You let him. You helped."

"Kaysa, it's been hours!" said Chitral desperately. "We tried but we couldn't wake you up. It was scary."

Kaysa paused, her strange fury — at being a true Healer stuck in a lesser one's care? at her friends' assumption that they could decide for her? — momentarily forgotten. Hours? It couldn't possibly have been that long, could it? She glanced around; James and Sirius were nodding, and poor Peter just looked miserable. Her eyes found Remus's. He looked straight back at her.

"Tell me," she ordered, releasing James and sitting back on her haunches.

"It's been about three hours," said Remus, his voice carefully neutral. "Peter called us just as James's practice was ending. He told us that you were in Hogsmeade and that you had collapsed—"

"Called you how?" Kaysa interrupted. The strange high seemed to be abating; she felt a bit more like herself now.

"Mind-speech."

"Long-distance?" said Kaysa, raising her eyebrows and turning to look at Peter. "Impressive."

"Lucky, you mean," James corrected her tersely. "None of us have been able to yet. If Peter hadn't managed it just then he'd have had to come all the way back to the castle to find us. You would have been left unconscious on the floor of that shop."

Kaysa opened her mouth to argue back, anger rising again.

"Either way," Remus continued forcefully, "we came as fast as we could. When we couldn't wake you up and you didn't just come out of it on your own we decided to bring you back here, which I guess you find objectionable, but we were worried. We didn't know what else to do."

Kaysa pursed her lips, then sighed. "Fine," she said, giving up being pissed. It suddenly didn't seem that important anymore. "But if it ever happens again I really will thump someone. Also," she added, as another thought occurred to her, "if I ever wind up in one of those stupid backless gowns I will burn the thing and walk around starkers until someone finds me some proper clothes. Got it?"

Chitral merely snorted, but the boys looked sufficiently horrified by this thought for her to be confident that she would at least never wake to find herself dressed in a floral sack.

"So," she said, grinning, "how long did it take you all to get to us?"

"Not as long as you'd think," Sirius muttered darkly.

"Peter sounded quite worried about you," said Remus, the tiniest hint of reproach now coloring his voice, "so we came as fast as we could. James flew and Sirius and I rode."

"Rode?" Kaysa echoed blankly.

"I was a horse," Chitral explained. "They have terrible seats," she added, shooting Sirius and Remus a look.

"Oh, and your backbone was oh-so comfy," Sirius retorted. Chitral stuck her tongue out at him. Kaysa snorted and Sirius turned back to her.

"Why'd you go back?" he demanded. "Especially after what happened last time."

"And what's with the scroll?" added James, pointing. Kaysa looked; the scroll she had grabbed in the shop was still clutched in her free hand, she'd been brandishing it like a wand at James earlier without even realizing. She frowned, confused.

"You wouldn't let it go," James told her. "I had to pay for it."

"Oh," said Kaysa. "Good."

Yes, good. It was important, the scroll. She was sure of it now.

"Thanks. I'll pay you back."

"I don't care about the money!" James snapped. "I want to know what's going on!"

Kaysa sighed. She probably owed them an explanation. She certainly owed Peter one. She knew that. But everything was still so confused. Still, maybe talking about it with her friends would help her sort through it all. And this was their world, maybe they could shed some light the questions she was sure she would soon have.

"Fine," she said. "Find Madame Pomfrey so I can get out of here without anyone having hippogryphs or whatever. Soon as we get someplace private I'll explain everything. Or I'll try to, anyway."

_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_

Sirius kept to the back as the group made their way through the castle to the library. He wasn't sure if he was angrier about what Kaysa had done, or about the fact that she'd done it without telling any of them. Why had she done it? Why hadn't she trusted them? Watching her as she strode along behind James, the scroll still held in her hand and a vague, thoughtful expression on her face, he wondered if she even realized what they were all so angry about.

"You know," said Chitral quietly, dropping back to walk beside him, "yelling probably won't help any."

Sirius shrugged. "It might make me feel better."

For a moment, he thought Chitral would scoff or tell him not to be so immature, but then she snorted.

"Tell me about it," she muttered.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her.

"You're gonna yell at her?" he asked, surprised. Chitral usually deferred to Kaysa, even when it was clear that she didn't really agree with her cousin. Though frankly after that display in the Hospital Wing Sirius couldn't really say that he blamed her; Kaysa was scary when she was angry.

Chitral seemed to know what he was thinking because she said, "It's different for us. Our society is hierarchical. More so than yours, or more clearly so, at least. Humans seem to have their own ways. . . . At any rate, Kaysa outranks me, but we're also family. It's not like Kaysa spends all her time ordering me around or anything; she respects my right to decide things for myself. That way, we both know that if she's giving orders or if I'm yelling at her or really putting my foot down on something we'd better listen to each other because it's big and important."

Sirius frowned, thinking about that. It seemed an odd way to think to him, but he could see how it could work. Maybe, anyway.

When they reached the library, James led the way to table tucked between the stacks and as far from the front desk as possible. Eyeing the look on his friend's face Sirius suddenly wondered if the library was really the best place for this. Things had been pretty loud and heated back in the Hospital Wing after all.

"Perhaps a muffling charm is in order," Remus suggested rather dryly.

"Why, Remus," said James airily, pulling out his want to help, "surely you're not suggesting we be disruptive in a library."

"Surely not," said Remus. "Why would I ever suspect you of such a thing?"

There was slightly scathing note in his voice and as he and James muttered the spells that would keep the rest of the library from hearing much if they ended up yelling again, Sirius found himself wondering what Remus was feeling. Of all of them, he had been the most calm so far, the only one besides Peter not to yell or snap, and yet, that calm, that neutrality seemed almost too careful. And the sarcasm. That was unusual too. Not that Remus didn't have a sense of humor, he did, it just wasn't usually so harsh.

When they were finished with the spells, James returned to the table and sat down across from Kaysa, who was curled up in her chair still eyeing the scroll as though it possessed some puzzling secret that she had to find out.

"Well?" prompted James expectantly as Remus perched himself on the windowsill. Across from them, Kaysa blinked and looked up at James as if she'd only just remembered he and the others were there.

"What?" she said blankly.

"You tell us, remember?" said Sirius glowering at her. She wasn't going to get out of this by acting all spacey. He wanted answers.

"What?" said Kaysa again. Chitral, who was sitting next to her, gave her a shove.

"Pay attention," she said sharply. "Why'd you go back? You had to know what might happen otherwise you'd never have kept it from us."

"Right, right," said Kaysa, looking around and seeming to pull herself together some. Then she turned and looked at her cousin. "I had to know, Chi. They taught us back home; sometimes things shout for a reason. I couldn't just leave it."

Chitral stared at her. "Er, come again?"

"This," said Kaysa, holding up the scroll. "I couldn't leave it!"

There was silence for a moment then, "Perhaps you should start at the beginning," said Remus, rather diplomatically Sirius thought. He would have just asked if she barmy.

"Hmm," said Kaysa, pursing her lips. "I guess that's the problem. I'm not really sure where it starts. Er. . ."

"Maybe it starts where you decided to use me," said Peter quietly. Kaysa's head snapped up sharply. Sirius turned to stare at the boy. So did everyone else. Peter looked straight back at Kaysa, the normally worried features of his round face set.

"I wasn't using you," said Kaysa, meeting his gaze.

"Yes. You were."

Kaysa actually flinched.

"It's not that simple," she said. "I needed you, I told you that. Maybe I didn't tell you everything, but I didn't lie to you. And whether you believe that or not, this didn't just start this afternoon."

She sighed and ran her hands down her face.

"I'm not quite sure where it started. A couple weeks ago, at least. But it was gradual, and I'm not sure when I started to notice. Or remember. At first I thought it was just weird dreams."

"Dreams?" echoed Sirius, frowning. "Does this have anything to do with why you've been so weird lately?"

"I've been weird?" Kaysa wanted to know. "More than usual?"

"You're kidding, right?" said James. "Jittery, interrupting teachers —"

"Snapping for no reason, shaking the whole table because you can't sit still," Remus chimed in.

"Having snarling matches with aquatic creatures all throughout class," added Sirius.

"Not to mention you going completely postal on us back there in the Hospital Wing," said Chitral.

Kaysa shook her head. "That was different. A side effect, I think."

"Side effect? Of what?" James asked.

"The — the vision. Look, you're not helping. Let me try to tell this in order, all right?" said Kaysa crossly.

James put his hands up in concession. All eyes turned back to Kaysa, waiting. The girl hesitated a moment, her green eyes narrowed in thought.

"I've been having these dreams," she said slowly. "At first I thought that's all they were; my dreams are always weird. But they aren't usually recurrent. And these were so vivid, and about things . . . things I couldn't possibly know about."

"What do you mean?" asked Remus, leaning forward.

"I mean I was dreaming things that could have been real," said Kaysa. "Only, I shouldn't have been able to. I've never seen a desert before, but when I dreamed it, it was so real. That was the part that happened the most. I'd be dreaming something normal — well, for dreams, anyway — and then suddenly I'd be in this desert. No matter what direction I'd pick I'd always end up in the same place, the same situation. I'd hear the shouting, smell the blood, find the valley — well, that might be saying much, it was really just a larger dip between the dunes, but there'd be people there, yelling and fighting. Their gear was . . . primitive, but effective and I couldn't understand the language at all."

She paused for a moment, drumming her fingers on the table.

"I think they were a real people once," she said at last. "I'm not positive yet, but . . . . it felt old. Really old."

"Things can't _feel_ old," scoffed James.

"Yes they can," retorted Kaysa.

"No they can't."

"They can," she insisted. "Come on, someone back me up. Sirius? You know what I'm talking about. You said those scrolls felt old."

Sirius felt his eyes go wide. He hadn't meant for her to tell everybody about that.

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did," Kaysa insisted, failing to take the hint. "You said you thought they were really old, but it wasn't like they had dates or anything on them."

"Yeah, well," Sirius blustered, "they were all faded and felt fragile, like they'd fall apart if you touched them wrong."

Kaysa glowered at him. Sirius glared right back; she hadn't trusted him enough to tell him what she was doing, he wasn't going to back her up now. Kaysa huffed irritably through her nose.

"Maybe it's a shifter thing," suggested Chitral peaceably. "Sometimes when we're new at it we end up in the wrong place or the wrong time. You have to be able to guess pretty quickly where a people are on a probable — probable . . . progression of time . . . how do you say? Professor Binns uses them sometimes, to show a series of events."

"Time line?" Remus supplied uncertainly.

"Ah, time line, yes, thank you."

"Why does everyone think it's a line?" Kaysa complained.

Chitral shrugged. "Perhaps because, for their given life-spans and history spans, it is, effectively, a line? Either way, it doesn't matter just now. So, you think the dreams were visions?" She sounded skeptical. "Kaysa, you're not a seer."

"I know that," said Kaysa. "And I don't think they were visions, precisely. It felt more like — like a memory? Someone else's though, not mine. And it was weird, like it was incomplete or something. Like I was missing key things. And I kept hearing it — that sound that was in my head that day at the bookshop, only — only in the dreams there was almost sense — meaning to it. But I couldn't tell where it was coming from."

She paused there and frowned, eyes fixed on the scroll again. When the silence stretched on, James cleared his throat loudly. Kaysa shot him a look.

"It's confusing," she informed him shortly. "I am trying to spare you my headaches."

"Well, don't," said James. "Just tell us."

Kaysa glared at him, but continued.

"Several days ago I started dreaming about shelves too," she said. "I had no idea why, but then Sirius told me about the scrolls he'd found in that bookshop that were really old and probably from Egypt, which he said was mostly desert. It made sense, so I went back to try and figure out what was happening."

"And you didn't tell any of us about this before because?" James prompted. His voice was mild but his hazel eyes glinted dangerously behind his glasses.

"It was important," said Kaysa flatly. "I knew you'd never agree if I told you so I decided I'd just do it myself. I didn't plan to take Peter along but then the opportunity presented itself and I really did feel better knowing someone would be there just in case anything happened."

"Which it did," said Sirius angrily. "And we all had no clue what was going on." He could not believe she hadn't said anything, that she'd left them in the dark. That she hadn't trusted them.

"You couldn't have been sure that none of us would help," said Remus suddenly. He looked angry and hurt.

Kaysa raised one eyebrow.

"Would you have?" she asked.

"I don't know," Remus retorted. "You never asked."

"It was too important," Kaysa argued. "I knew I had to do it. I didn't want to fight with you guys about it. And I couldn't risk anyone doing anything stupid like trying to tell the headmaster, either."

"We wouldn't—" James began loudly but Kaysa cut him off.

"You wouldn't. Chitral might."

"You still should have told us, Kaysa," said Remus quietly.

"I'm sorry," said Kaysa. "But it really was important. I think — When I touched the scroll, I saw things. Like what I'd been dreaming only more. Look, I need to check some things," she said, rising from her seat at the table. "Give me a couple minutes?"

"I'll help," said Sirius. "You're looking for books on Egypt, right?"

Kaysa nodded.

"Thanks," she said.

Don't thank me just yet, he thought privately as he led the way to the section on ancient civilizations. He'd help her find what she was looking for, but mostly he just wanted a word in private. Or lots of angry ones. Reaching the shelf with books on Egypt he turned abruptly to face her.

"You used me," he accused. "Just like you used Peter. Asking about the scrolls, getting me to talk about Egypt and stuff. Pretending to be interested when you were just looking for information—"

"I wasn't pretending," said Kaysa looking startled. "I _was _interested. I am. I like learning things, you know that. I would have asked all that anyway. It just happened to be important, is all."

"You still could have just asked straight up," said Sirius. "I would have told you."

"Maybe," said Kaysa, "but then you would have known what I was going to do and told James and the others and it would have turned into a giant fight. I was trying to avoid that."

"Oh yeah? And how's that working out for you?"

"Oh, perfectly," Kaysa snarled. "Can't you tell?"

"You know we couldn't have stopped you," Sirius snapped right back. "Why didn't you just tell us?"

"If you and James had an idea for an amazing prank on someone but knew that none of the rest of us would agree to it, would you tell us or would you just do it?" Kaysa asked.

Sirius stared at her. Didn't she get it at all?

"That's completely different," he told her furiously. "James and I would never risk our lives for a prank!"

"But you'd do it anyway," said Kaysa. "That makes it the same. You'd do it anyway, I had to do it anyway, so the only question left is whether we want a big fight about it. I didn't. I didn't want to hurt anyone. I don't why you're all so angry. It's not like I was risking anyone but myself. And I don't think I was risking that much, either."

She really didn't get it, he realized. Arithmancy, complex magical theories, that stuff she understood fine but for some reason she truly didn't understand why what she'd done was a problem.

"We're your friends, Kaysa," he said quietly.

"But it was important—"

"More important than us?" Sirius pressed. He was slightly startled by how much the thought hurt, that whatever this was, it had been more important to her than he and the other were.

Kaysa blinked.

"Oh," she said softly.

"You could have trusted us."

"I — it wasn't —" she floundered. "It wasn't like that."

"Oh yeah?" said Sirius. "Because it sure feels like that."

Kaysa looked away and said nothing. They stood there like that for a moment, then, not knowing what else to do, Sirius turned to the shelf.

"Anyway, this is it," he told her gruffly. "What are we looking for? History?"

"And mythology," said Kaysa. She sounded shaken.

Good, Sirius thought. Out loud he said, "Here," and handed her a book that looked promising. "Try this one."

Kaysa thumbed through it, stopping here and there to examine a page or a picture, muttering to herself. Waiting for her to finish, Sirius selected three more books that looked as though they might contain Egyptian mythology or history.

"Well, the warriors look right," said Kaysa, putting the first book away. Then she saw the others Sirius was holding out to her. Taking them quickly she plunked herself down right there on the floor and opened the book on the top to the index.

Sirius frowned as she worked. Despite his anger he couldn't help being curious.

"What are you looking for?" he asked as she placed one book aside and took up another.

"I'm not exactly sure," said Kaysa pensively. "That scroll I have, it's the one you mentioned with the picture of the winged wild cat thing. I'm trying to figure out if the ancient Egyptians have any mythology that might explain what it is — or what they might have thought it was, anyway. Do you know if they did?"

Sirius shrugged. "I know they had a cat goddess they worshiped, but I don't think—"

"Cat goddess?" Kaysa interrupted, looking up at him.

"Yeah," he said, kneeling down beside her and picking up one of the books. "Here, look." He flipped through the pages til he found what he was looking for. After he had initially found the scrolls he had come here himself out of curiosity. The animal headed people he had seen depicted in some of the scrolls had turned out to be some of the Egyptian gods or goddesses. He remembered this one because he had never heard of a society that worshiped cats before and it had made him wonder if it had been the influence of early wizards.

"See?" ha said, holding the book out to Kaysa. Kaysa took it.

"Bastet," she read aloud. "Egyptian cat goddess, blah, blah, blah, goddess of protection . . . thought to be a later representation of Sakhmet, a lion-headed goddess of war and destruction."

As Kaysa turned almost frantically to the index, Sirius wondered if she could have possibly read that last part any faster. Clearly she thought she'd found something.

"Sakhmet, Sakhmet — Ah! Here," said Kaysa, locating the name and then flipping quickly to the page listed. "Sakhmet, a goddess of war but also of healing, protector of the pharaohs, daughter of Ra, the sun god . . . also a deity of the sun, sometimes called the _Lady of Flame. . ._ ."

Kaysa trailed off, staring at the page, then she looked up at Sirius.

"Kaysa?" She looked as though she'd just been stunned. "Are you alright?"

Kaysa didn't answer him. Instead, she jumped to her feet, wheeled around, and sprinted back the way they had come, still clutching the open book in her hands. Utterly baffled, Sirius grabbed up the other two books that had tumbled from her lap and followed her.

_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_

It had to be. It _couldn't _be. It didn't make any sense. They weren't allowed. But it fit, it really did. It would explain a lot, actually. But was it even possible?

The thoughts swirled in Kaysa's mind as she rushed back towards the table and her friends. And Chitral. Chitral who would understand. Chitral who could tell her if she was being completely crazy. Chitral who —

Nearing the table, Kaysa suddenly stopped dead. Chitral, who would think she definitely was crazy unless she took the time to explain properly. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down, then —

"Ow!" she complained, stumbling forward. "What —?"

"Sorry," Sirius mumbled behind her. He had crashed right into her. "What'd you stop for so sudden-like? You were all bat out of hell a moment ago."

"Sorry," she said, restraining herself from asking what any sensible bat would be doing in hell in the first place. "Just had a thought, that's all."

"Did you ever think maybe you think too much?" asked Sirius and she supposed he was getting as fed up as she was with her constantly changing moods and paces. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything she could do about them.

"Probably," she said, then turned abruptly to face him. "Let me do the talking?" she said, managing at the last second to make it sound more like a question than an order. "About what we've found, I mean."

"Like I even know what you've found," Sirius retorted. He still sounded annoyed with her, but at least his desire to shout about it seemed to have abated. She was glad. Though she was still convinced that she'd done what she had to she didn't like being at odds with her friends.

With a slightly apologetic smile, she turned and walked the rest of the way back to the table and set the book down. Sirius returned to his seat beside James. Kaysa remained standing, drumming her fingers against the table and thinking. Explaining was difficult; it would have been much easier mind-to-mind, but she felt as though that would be cheating somehow and she didn't want to take short cuts with her friends. Not now.

"Well?" James prompted her after a minute or two.

Making up her mind, Kaysa flipped through the book's pages, making sure to keep one finger on the page on the goddess. Finding a page with the pictures she wanted, she stopped and pointed. The others craned to look.

"In my dreams, the warriors looked like this," she said. "Simple garments, simple weapons, rawhide shields. I could smell them. Do any of you know if — were these Egyptians unique enough that if this is what I saw than this is what it must be, or were they similar enough to other cultures that this tells us nothing?"

She disliked having to consider that there might be another explanation, especially when the one she already had seemed to make so much sense, but she was determined to get this right. She would defer to the boys' knowledge of their own world.

"I don't know," said James. "Why does it matter?"

"In a moment," Kaysa promised, looking around at the others for their opinions.

"My mum likes art from other places," Peter offered sounding hesitant. "Most of it's pretty old and it all seems to be pretty different."

Remus nodded. "I've hardly made a study of the subject," he said, "but that sounds right."

Kaysa nodded and turned her eyes to Sirius, who shrugged.

"Don't look at me," he said. "My family's never been interested in anything outside the Wizarding world."

And yet, he'd known enough to guess that the scrolls were from Ancient Egypt, Kaysa thought, putting her head to one side and pondering these two contradictions. It did not seem to make sense to her, but perhaps it was one of those things that everyone knew a bit about, like being able to recognize and name plants, even if one knew nothing about them. In any case, she had noticed that Sirius didn't seem to like talking about his family for some reason and now didn't seem the time to ask questions.

"Right," she said instead, looking back at the book. "Then it seems safe to assume that if I was dreaming something real, then I was dreaming Ancient Egypt."

She sat down then, and rubbed her temples.

"Remember how I said the dreams felt incomplete?" she asked. "And when I touched the scroll, I saw things?"

The boys nodded. Chitral said slowly, "Ye-es."

"Well," said Kaysa, flipping back to the page on the lion-goddess and reaching for the scroll now instead, "I think — and I know how this is going to sound — but I think —"

She paused and unrolled the scroll carefully, revealing its unintelligible text and the now faded images of a lioness with wings.

"I think the scroll was magicked," she said at last. "I think it was magicked to tell a story." She tapped a finger against the winged lioness. "To tell _her_ story."

The silence that followed this pronouncement seemed to ring in her ears worse than the scroll's screaming had back in the bookshop.

"I know it sounds crazy," she said quietly.

"Well," said James carefully, "it's just, why would someone magic a scroll to tell the story of a gryphon?"

At the same time, Remus reached out and placed his hand on the yellowed parchment.

"I'm not getting anything," he said after a moment.

"That's not a gryphon," said Kaysa. "The head's all wrong for a gryphon. And —" she hesitated, then plunged on, "And I'm not sure the story was meant for humans."

There was more silence, then Peter asked, "What would be the point of that? I mean, who would ever probably look at it except humans?"

Kaysa didn't answer. She could feel Chitral's eyes on her, could feel the sharpness of her gaze. Knew her cousin could tell that there was still something she was holding back, something big.

"Kaysa?" Chitral said, waiting.

Kaysa took a breath, let it out.

"Chitral, I — I think it's A'khala."


	18. Fata Aquarius, Pectus Flammae

Disclaimer: I am broke college student. I own nothing.

A/N: again, me with the name thing… A'khala is pronounced ah-KHAH-la. The 'kh' is rolled slightly in the back of the throat as in Middle Eastern languages (try Hebrew if you're uncertain or curious). In _Aldhaani/Aldhaan _the 'dh' is almost a soft 'th' (like the 'th' in then) and the double 'aa' signifies the syllable to be stressed.

Also, in case anyone is interested, I think there's only a couple more chapters to go before I have to wrap this part of the story up since then summer and fourth year start, which will probably get it's own 'story' thing here, though I'm not quite sure yet. Any suggestions? Seriously, people, I'd love to know what you're thinking here…

Anyway, Cheers,

~SilverKit

* * *

_**Fata Aquarius, Pectus Flammae**_

* * *

"Ach-whata?" repeated James, glancing sidelong at Sirius. Sirius shrugged, though he had halped Kaysa in looking, she had hardly explained what she was looking for or why. He was just as bewildered as James was.

"A'khala," said Kaysa again. "She's—"

"Kaysa, you can't be serious!" Chitral cut in.

"I am," said Kaysa.

"But it's a restricted planet!"

"A'khala was _Aldhaani_. They didn't have a Council, remember?"

"Yes, but—"

"Chitral, look!" Kaysa hissed, leaning forward and shoving both scroll and book under her cousin's nose. "Look at this! Don't tell me you can't see the similarities! This goddess was a lioness, could take different forms, was one of their most powerful deities — Chi, one of her titles was the Lady of Flame."

"So what?" said Chitral. "What's that got to do with—"

"It's in her name," said Kaysa, her voice rising. "Don't you know? A'khala means 'one who is passionate' but translated literally it's more like 'heart's flame' or 'heart on fire' or, in the oldest known dialect, 'one who is aflame.' Chitral —"

Chitral was staring at Kaysa. Her mouth was open and she was shaking her head as though it would somehow keep what her cousin was saying from being true, though Sirius could not understand why she was so reluctant to consider it.

"Smell," Kaysa told her quietly, pointing to the picture on the scroll. "You can still smell the dyes on it, Chi. Her eyes were red."

"But—" said Chitral faintly, "But — Kaysa it's not possible. We know the stories. They kept records, Kaysa. If any of the _Aldhaani_ had ever been here we would know about it."

Kaysa snorted. "Those records are kept by the Council," she said. "Who's to say they never do a bit of editing?"

"Kaysa!" Chitral began, looking scandalized, but it seemed that James had finally run out of patience.

"Excuse me," he said loudly, leaning his chair back on its hind legs and glowering at the two girls, "but would one of you care to tell us what the blazes you're on about?"

Kaysa and Chitral turned to look at them all as though they'd forgotten they were even there. Sirius glanced sidelong at James, then leaned back in his own chair, mimicking his friend's attitude of lazy insolence; he was still annoyed with Kaysa and this was easier than shouting. He also suspected it would drive her insane, a thing he felt she deserved.

"Well?" he prompted her and Chitral as the silence stretched on. Kaysa and Chitral traded glances, then sat down to explain.

A'khala, it transpired, had been one of the first of Kaysa and Chitral's people. She had lived several thousand years ago, had red eyes — a thing which Kaysa and Chitral were reluctant to discuss but which they said was a kind of side-effect of a Shifter having too much unfocused power and hardly ever happened anymore — and who was apparently rather well known as both an explorer and a warrior. They did not explain the other word they had used — _Aldhaani_ or _Aldhaan_ — but from the way they used it Sirius could infer that it was a word for both the first few generations of their people and for the era in which said generations had lived.

All this Kaysa and Chitral agreed on. What they did not appear to be able to agree on was whether or not it was possible for this A'khala to have ever been on Earth. Kaysa seemed convinced that there were too many coincidences and strange things piling up for it not to be likely, while Chitral kept stubbornly repeating that if _any _of their people had ever been here in the past the Council would have a record of it. It seemed positively unthinkable to her that this Council should have kept things from its people or altered the historical records. Kaysa seemed equally upset by this possibility, though her response was fury rather than Chitral's horrified denial.

"I don't know why you're so upset about it," Sirius told her. "All governments lie and stuff. That's just how it is."

"The Council isn't a government," said Kaysa tightly. "They're there to make sure that Shifters don't abuse their powers. The members are supposed to be chosen for being strong, honorable, and incorruptible. They're not supposed to lie to us. Not ever."

"Which is why this whole thing is impossible," Chitral cut in. "The Council would never lie like this, even by omission. It would be a complete betrayal of the trust they hold."

Kaysa pursed her lips.

"I still think it's too much lining up," she said. "Maybe the Council doesn't know the records were changed. It could have happened forever ago, I suppose. The Council's been around for ages after all. But I used to talk to Teregon after class and he always thought there was more to the _Aldhaani_ than we knew. Had some evidence of it, too. I don't care if you think I'm nuts, I'm looking into this. I have to know."

"Does it really matter that much?" asked James skeptically. "I mean, even if you're right and this A'khala person really was in Egypt, it was thousands of years ago. Who cares?"

"It might matter," said Kaysa softly. She was looking at the winged lioness again with a very odd expression on her face. "It might matter quite a lot."

There was a moment of silence, then James said, "Yeah, well, in the mean time can we have some dinner? It's getting late and I'm starving."

"Yeah, dinner sounds good," Sirius agreed. He was also quite hungry by now, and he needed to finish an essay before bed too. He let his chair fall back onto all fours and stood up. Everyone else followed suit. Sirius paused.

"Er, mate," he said to James, trying hard not to grin, "you're still wearing your practice robes."

James blinked and looked down at himself.

"Oh," he said frowning, then he shrugged. "Ah well, it's not like I'm totally mud-spattered or anything. Let's go." And he led the way out of the library and off towards the great hall.

"What do you want to bet he forgot to change on purpose just so he could wear his Quidditch robes to dinner so people would notice?" Sirius muttered to Remus as they followed James along the hallways. Remus grinned at him.

"Well," he said, "I don't know about on purpose, but he certainly doesn't seem too bothered, does he?"

They laughed.

"Sirius!"

Sirius turned as a hand grabbed his arm. He and Remus had fallen back as they talked and he had thought everyone else was ahead with James but apparently Kaysa had been straggling.

"What?" he asked coldly. He knew that by now his anger with her was probably exorbitant, but he couldn't help it. It had also occurred to him that if what she had wanted to avoid was being on the outs with her friends then the longer he dragged this out, the less likely she would be to do something like it again.

Kaysa looked hurt, but unsurprised by his reaction.

"Nothing, really," she said, dropping his arm. "It's just . . . I _do_ trust you, you know."

Sirius sighed. "If you trusted us, you would have told us what was going on with you," he said. "And haven't we already had this conversation?"

"That's not why I didn't say anything," Kaysa protested. "I couldn't tell you—"

"Yes. You could have." Remus's face was hard, his clear blue eyes glinting angrily. Kaysa looked at him, startled.

"I told you," she said, "I didn't want to have the argument. I don't understand why we are having it now. I'm sorry I didn't bring you in on what I was doing, but what's done is done. Yelling at me now won't change it so why are you all still angry?"

Sirius dropped his head into his hand and groaned.

"You explain it," he said to Remus. "I already tried."

Kaysa looked at Remus, who still looked angry.

"It's not just that you didn't tell us," he said. "And we're not just angry. Kaysa, we're your friends. You should have told us. You _could _have told us. And you should have known you could have told us."

"But, but that's —" Kaysa broke off, biting her lip. She was wearing that look she got when she was struggling to put words to some complicated concept.

"It's different," she said at last. "I didn't not say anything because I thought I couldn't trust you. I know I can trust you. I also know you. Well enough to know that if I said anything you wouldn't want me to do it. That's all."

"Well, it feels like you think you can't trust us," said Remus coldly. "So next time, just tell us what's going on instead of hiding it for weeks and then rushing off to maybe get yourself killed or injured or something with all of us none the wiser, okay?"

Kaysa frowned and opened her mouth. Remus held up a hand.

"And I don't care if it's different for your people," he said sharply. "You're here. You live with us humans now. Either learn human ways or resign yourself to be forever confused and pissing people off."

Kaysa closed her mouth. She seemed to give this statement serious consideration, then, to Sirius's utter shock, she actually ducked her head. She seemed to shrink in on herself. She looked up at Remus through her lashes.

"This is good sense," she said. "You are right; I am the one who must change. But human ways are not so easy to figure out on my own. Will you help? Will you teach me?"

Sirius and Remus stared at her. They had never seen her defer so completely to anyone before. Something about the formality of her speech made Sirius think that she really meant it too; she would accept them as her teachers in human behavior and willingly submit to their explanations and assertions on the subject. It was more concession than she tended to give their actual teachers.

"Yes," said Sirius, before Remus could say anything. "Yes, we can do that."

Kaysa half-nodded to him, then looked back to Remus.

"Only if you promise to listen," he told her firmly. "I won't waste time explaining things if you don't listen, Kaysa."

"I promise," said Kaysa solemnly.

"Good," said Remus. "Then I'll help. Now, let's get to dinner. I'm pretty hungry myself."

Kaysa nodded and the three of them hurried to catch up to James and the others.

_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_

At dinner, Kaysa apologized to James, Peter, and Chitral and put her request for help learning human ways to James and Peter, who agreed, Peter with some surprise and James looking as though he couldn't believe it had taken her so long to figure out that she needed to learn. James then promptly made her promise to only keep secrets from them if they were intensely personal or else had nothing to do with their group. Kaysa agreed to this with the addendum that she also be allowed to keep secrets if they were not hers to tell unless of course keeping them would clearly lead to harm or endanger someone.

"I guess in that case I'd better mention that I plan on talking to the kelpie," she told them all as they switched from dinner to dessert (blackberry and apple crumble served with custard and cream). "It kept saying it had answers and I want to know what it meant."

There was silence for a moment, then Remus put down his fork and asked, very carefully, "And will talking to the kelpie be dangerous?"

Kaysa considered this. "Not in and of itself, no. The kelpie can't hurt me. But I doubt it will tell me anything for free. I will probably have to bargain with it."

"Will you need our help?" Remus asked.

"I don't think so," said Kaysa. "You wouldn't understand what it said anyway. At least, I don't think so. I've never heard it speak English, at any rate. You can come with me, if you like, but I'll be okay on my own."

Sirius frowned. "And when are you planning to have this chat? We're finishing the aquatic unit after this week."

"I know," said Kaysa. She looked disappointed. "I hope they keep teaching together, you know. Classes with the two of them are so much fun."

Sirius nodded. He didn't have to ask to know she meant Professors Kettleburn and Reardon; everybody loved their joint classes, though Sirius wasn't sure how they could continue to teach together; their subjects couldn't overlap that much.

"Even if they don't, I'm sure we'll still see plenty of them," said Chitral with a small, conspiratorial smile. Kaysa grinned and nodded her head.

"What's that supposed to mean?" James demanded. Kaysa and Chitral exchanged brief glances.

"Nothing," said Kaysa quickly. "Just that they seem to be good friends so I'm sure that now that they've started doing this joint teaching thing they'll find a way to keep doing it when they can."

"R-ight," said James, who clearly wasn't buying their act anymore than Sirius was. "Well, whatever. That still leaves the question of when you're planning to talk to the kelpie."

"Oh, right," said Kaysa. She frowned, then shrugged. "I don't know. I hadn't really got that far yet. But it'll have to be at night, I suppose. Maybe I'll go before Astronomy Wednesday night…"

"That's a bit risky," said James. "People will still be up then. What will you do if you get caught?"

"I'm writing that essay on kelpies," Kaysa said. "I'll tell them I wanted to get in some last minute observation or something."

James, Sirius, and Remus all looked at each other.

"Well," said James, "you just let us know how that works out for you, won't you?"

Kaysa just laughed and tucked into her crumble.

_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_

Over the next few days, Sirius felt as though whenever he was not working or sleeping, he was fielding questions from Kaysa. She seemed to have taken Remus's words about learning human ways to heart, which Sirius supposed was a good thing, but it also meant that she was now asking more questions than ever and they were often about details of human interaction that he and the others tended not to even think about. As her questions became increasingly confusing, Remus suggested that perhaps they would be able to help her better if she explained a little about her own society. Kaysa said that she would try, and Chitral agreed to help too, but so far all they had really been able to establish was that their two peoples came at things very differently. Both girls seemed to be struggling to find the right words to explain a way of thinking to them that was completely alien to their own, though they were trying.

"It's difficult," Chitral told them at lunch on Tuesday when James grumbled that he didn't see why it was so hard for them to explain their own people, "because we never really thought about it. Not like this. Our ways made sense to us, as yours must to you."

Kaysa snorted at this; though she was trying to learn, she still insisted that there was no rhyme or reason to human social rules.

"And languages are crafted by both the needs of a society and the mindset of its people," Chitral continued, ignoring her cousin. "Humans have never needed to be able to explain the rules of any sentient society but their own and we are still not completely familiar with English so of course it is giving us a bit of trouble."

As if to emphasize this, Chitral's accent returned and she dropped her contractions again, much as she had done when she and Kaysa had first started speaking.

"Also," Kaysa added, "our people's ways are based off of our feline predecessors. They may have been much cleverer than the lions you know here on Earth, but the thought processes are still similar."

Sirius supposed this made sense in a way; he supposed it was a bit like how even though he knew about house elves, he couldn't really understand how they could actually enjoy working and cleaning all the time. The language problem was one he hadn't thought of before and it was one that he didn't really have time to consider. Their teachers were beginning to talk about end of year exams, which Sirius thought was ridiculous in February and which unfortunately meant that their homework load was slowly but surely increasing. In fact, the only class in which he and the others were not being assigned lengthy essays was Kettleburn's and Reardon's joint class, and even then it was probably only because the unit was ending so soon and they already had that long research one due on Thursday.

He, James, Remus, and Peter spent Tuesday night, at Remus's request, looking over each other's essays in the Gryffindor common room. Sirius had thought that Kaysa and Chitral might join them, but both girls felt that they had been neglecting Lily and so spent their evening sprawled on the floor with her and Heather going over their latest Arithmancy homework and playing various card games in between. Trying to concentrate on proofreading James's essay, Sirius wondered what precisely it was about girls that made them giggle as if they had some kind of fabulous secret whenever they got together. He noticed that Remus also kept shooting them slightly irritated looks and remembered that Kaysa and Remus usually did their Arithmancy homework together. Remus caught him watching then and looked away, apparently embarrassed, but Sirius just shrugged at him. Sharing friends could be hard, he didn't see anything embarrassing about it, at least so long as no one made a scene about it. He felt particularly validated in this opinion when he caught James shooting the girls a dirty look a few minutes later as well.

"What is it with them?" James muttered, more to himself it seemed than anyone else, as he watched Kaysa, Chitral, Lily, and Heather break into yet another giggle-fit.

"Huh?" said Peter, looking up from the essay he was reading.

"Them," James replied, nodding at the girls on the floor. "Giggling like that and all. Honestly, you'd think we'd never told them anything funny."

"But," Peter looked confused, "but they laugh with us all the time."

"Girls need other girls," said Sirius shrugging. He knew this quite well from having to hear about Bellatrix and Narcissa all his life. "It'd be a bit unfair if we expected them to just drop everyone else for us, wouldn't it?"

"I suppose," said James grumpily. "Still, it'd be easier if Lily wasn't determined to hate us for all eternity."

Sirius caught Remus's eye at this and they both had to duck their heads quick to keep from laughing. Whatever James might say to the contrary, Sirius was sure now that his friend fancied the girl, and he couldn't help but find it amusing that James should be interested in the one girl in the whole school who would probably never fancy him back. He was determined, however, not to take the mickey out of him until he was sure that James had forgotten about his own crush on Kaysa earlier that year. To the best of his knowledge, James had never told Kaysa anything about it, and he wanted to keep it that way.

_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_

Wednesday morning was a slow, tired affair. Sirius slept his way through breakfast and History of Magic and probably would have done Transfiguration in his sleep too except that they were working on cross-species switching spells and even if this had not required a certain level of concentration he still would never have been able to doze off for all the noise. Their free period was given over to yet more homework and by lunchtime, Sirius was starting to feel more awake.

"What's with you two?" he asked as Kaysa and Chitral plunked down opposite him and James. Both girls were wearing looks of utter disgust.

"Avery and Mulciber," said Kaysa angrily, tearing up a chicken leg for Cahiran, who spent most if his time these days wandering freely about the castle, though he still tended to turn up for meals.

"What were they doing this time?" Remus asked, looking apprehensive. Avery and Mulciber were a pair of fifth year Slytherins and they had a penchant for cruelty.

"Trapped a couple of Hufflepuff first years in that trick step on the staircase to the fifth floor," said Chitral.

"Yeah, and then stood at either end of the stair shooting hexes back and forth," Kaysa growled, "waiting to see how long they could keep ducking fast enough and laughing. They're terrible!"

Sirius exchanged looks with James and Remus; Avery and Mulciber tormenting first years was hardly anything new, and while the girls had never liked the two Slytherin boys or their idea of fun they had never seemed quite this ticked off about it before.

"Avery and Mulciber are usually like that," said James, frowning at Kaysa. "I've never seen you take it this badly before."

Kaysa and Chitral glanced at each other, then Kaysa said, "I'm just so sick of it. Why can't you humans just — just piss it out like everyone else and have done with?"

Sirius and the others stared at her blankly.

"This is another one of those human versus animal mindset things, isn't it?" said James after a moment. Kaysa sighed.

"I mean, why do Avery and Mulciber have to bully first years just so they can feel as though they can pee further than everyone else?" she said.

Sirius shrugged. This, at least, made slightly more sense to him, but he didn't have an answer for her. He had no idea why Avery and Mulciber liked to bully people or why in general bullies existed; they just did and you had to learn to live with it.

Cahiran appeared at Kaysa's elbow just as she finished shredding his meal. He hopped up on the bench beside her and ate off a plate on the table. His table manners were vastly improved from when Kaysa had first gotten him and he was beginning to outgrow his gawky phase too. It looked as though the kitsune would not grow to be any bigger than very large cat and looking at him now, Sirius thought he might turn out to be rather a handsome little fellow just as soon as he finished growing into his legs and head.

As Kaysa watched him eating, absentmindedly scratching his ears, Lily walked by with Heather; as she passed she shot a angry look at Kaysa and Chitral then stalked off toward the opposite end of the table with her nose in the air. Catching this, Kaysa glowered after her and huffed air sharply through her nose. Chitral glanced around to see what Kaysa was looking at, then curled her lip. Sirius raised his eyebrows. What on earth…?

"Did something happen with you lot?" he asked, looking back and forth between them and Lily.

"No," said Chitral defiantly at the exact same moment that Kaysa spat, "Yes!"

"Well, which is it?" James demanded. "Only, I'm betting on 'yes' seeing as yesterday it was only us blokes they looked at like that."

"It's nothing," said Chitral through clenched teeth. Kaysa huffed again.

"Lily reckons you and Sirius are no better than Avery and Mulciber," said Kaysa succinctly. She looked highly disgruntled.

"What?" said Sirius incredulously.

"We wouldn't do that!" James protested. "I mean, we might play some pranks on first years, but we'd never just trap them and hex them like that."

"That's exactly what I said," said Kaysa grabbing an orange and beginning to rip off its peel almost savagely, "but would she listen?"

"Well, cheer up," said Peter. "I ran into some Ravenclaw third years on my way down from break. They told me we're doing Cheering Charms today, and they all seemed really happy."

Kaysa snorted. "I don't want false cheeriness," she groused. "I want a proper fight, but you humans get too hung up on things."

"Back home, fights don't last between real friends," Chitral explained as Sirius and the others exchanged confused looks. "You disagree on something, if it's important enough you fight and have it out, and then it's over; that's it. We don't let stupid things get in the way."

"Oh," said James. He seemed to consider this for a moment then asked Kaysa, "So then, is our honor or whatever something worth fighting about?"

"Yes," said Kaysa, fiercely. Then, apparently realizing what she'd just said, she ducked her head, her face going pink. Chitral looked similarly embarrassed. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all grinned.

_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_

Despite Kaysa's protests that she did not want false cheeriness, the Cheering Charms in class worked wonders on her mood, though it did have some odd side effects, namely that while she and Lily were now speaking to each other again, it was mainly to say that they were still angry at each other — they just sounded now as though they were marvelously happy about it. Even under the influence of his own Cheering Charm, Sirius still found it a bit disconcerting, and as the charm began to wear off he thought he understood why Kaysa had not really wanted it; the charm might be able to make you feel very cheerful indeed, but it did not, in fact, fix anything, nor did it truly make anyone happy.

Herbology was spent tending to the Venomous Tentacula, which had caught a chill when someone's errant spell had broken the glass in one of the panes in greenhouse three. The glass was easily repaired, but the tentacula needed their frostbitten leaves clipped off and a special salve spread onto the parts of the plant that had been damaged but could not be cut without doing the things any more damage. It was quite a difficult task as it turned out; woken from their winter slumber and not at all happy to find their leaves and stems chilled and being cut, the tentacula were putting up quite a fight and the students had to work in teams of at least three to manage it. Halfway through the lesson Leah Wilkinson, one of the Ravenclaw girls, sustained a rather bad bite from one and had to go to the Hospital Wing. She was followed shortly by Liam and a Ravenclaw boy called Finnian Doyle. By the time they all left the greenhouses for the castle, no one was unscathed except for Kaysa and Chitral and even this was due mainly to their ability to heal instantaneously.

"That was ruddy awful," Sirius complained as they tramped back to Gryffindor tower. "Makes you wonder why anyone ever bothered with the damn plants, doesn't it?"

"Who cares?" said Kaysa wearily. "I just want a shower."

"Here, here," said James teasingly, wrinkling his nose. Chitral shoved him, though without much enthusiasm. Since they would not be injured if the tentacula grabbed, scratched, or bit them, Kaysa and Chitral had volunteered to most of the plant-wrestling in their groups. As a result, while they bore no scratches, both girls were tired and covered in dirt and dragon dung, which was Professor Sprout's favorite fertilizer and which did not exactly smell like a bed of roses.

"Here." With a grin, Kaysa clapped both her hands to James's face and dragged them down, wiping dirt and grime off on him. "Now you smell all lovely too."

James, who now had a pair of muddy handprints on his cheeks, made a face at her. Then he laughed.

"Thanks, Kays," he joked. "I'd been thinking I could do with a mud pack."

Sirius and the others laughed.

"Mentulam Caco," Remus told the Fat Lady. She swung forward obligingly and they made their way inside to wash up for dinner.

**_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_**

"Look, are you sure about this?"

Kaysa sighed. She tried to tell herself that they only nagged because they cared, but that didn't stop her from being annoyed. None of the four boys or Chitral had quit pestering her all through dinner and her patience was about spent.

"I'm positive," she told them. "Don't I keep telling you? I need to do this."

"But you've said yourself that the Fay Folk can be dangerous," Chitral argued.

"And you know it won't tell you anything without a price," added Remus.

"I know," Kaysa ground out. "I am the one who said all this in the first place."

"Then—" Chitral began.

"I still think it's important," Kaysa cut in. "Look, I'm doing this," she insisted, for Chitral, Remus, and James had all opened their mouths again, "whether you like it or not, so stop arguing with me, alright? Honestly. And you wonder why I didn't tell you what I was doing last time."

"This way is still better," said Remus firmly. He had been taking his role as one of her teachers in human social interaction seriously, for which Kaysa was mostly grateful. "This way we all feel that you've at least let us in."

"Right," agreed James. "Instead of finding out later and —"

"And feeling all betrayed," Peter finished for him. This was clearly not quite what James had had in mind and Kaysa couldn't help laughing at his expression.

"Right, right," she said placatingly. "But I am going, and if you want me to tell you how it goes then you'd all better stop arguing with me and just let me go."

There was some muttering at this, but no one protested so she grabbed up her bag for Astronomy, left their corner in the common room, and headed for the classroom where the kelpie was being kept.

It had its own tank now, which pleased Kaysa; the first one, which it had shared with the kappa and the Undine, had been far too small to keep a kelpie in for any extended period of time. It was swimming around and around, in no particular form, but as soon as it saw Kaysa approaching the Kelpie immediately became its classic 'black-horse' self.

[And have you decided that you want your answers?] it asked her, using the common tongue of beasts as it had in her dreams.

[I always want answers,] Kaysa replied in the same language. If anyone did catch her here she did not want them to know what she was doing, or saying. [The question here was did I need them, for I know you will extract some payment.]

She hesitated here, for she was well aware that the kelpie had her over a barrel here; she needed answers and the Fay were not known to bargain. They wanted what they wanted and would give you nothing until you had agreed. But she had to know. She still did not quite know why, but she was positive that it was important. If that scroll had been depicting one of her people's forebears she had to find out as much as she could and the Fay would have the longest memories of any. She squared her shoulders.

[I have decided that I do need them,] she told the Kelpie. [Name your terms.]

**_o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o_**

Kaysa arrived at the stair to the astronomy tower with just two minutes to spare. She had clearly run all the way there from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom; her long garner-colored hair had slipped its loose ponytail and hung down around her face and in her eyes and she was panting slightly. Her expression, however, was one of deep thought and she jumped when James said her name as though he'd startled her out of some reverie.

"What?" she said blankly, staring around at her classmates.

"Spaced out again, eh?" said James, grinning at her as though it was a bit of a joke; as if Kaysa had been having an off day all along. Sirius knew immediately what his friend was doing. Kaysa was almost never late to anything, and she never arrived out of breath or anything. James's words, then, would explain her rather disheveled appearance to the other Gryffindors while at the same time keeping anyone from asking her what had happened while their entire class could still hear them.

"Huh?" said Kaysa, clearly not noticing the odd looks she was attracting.

"Yeah, honestly, Kays," said Sirius, putting a hand on her shoulder and playing along with James, "you really must have slept badly last night; I've never seen you so out of it."

"Oh, er, right," said Kaysa, cottoning on. "Yeah, sorry. I was — was reading and lost track of the time."

It was a mark of how distracted she was that this was all she could come up with. Kaysa was usually a much better and more creative liar. At this point, however, Professor Alioc turned up and marched them all up to the top of the tower for their astronomy lesson so hopefully nobody made too much of it.

"Well?" James prompted once class was over. They had lingered in the corridors on purpose so that none of their fellow students would overhear their conversation — something Kaysa had insisted on.

"Well, it's definitely possible," said Kaysa quietly. "The kelpie wasn't positive who it was, or if we were thinking of the same person, but there's definitely been a Shifter here before."

"What?" gasped Chitral. "How do you know it wasn't lying?"

"I already told you, they can't lie," said Kaysa impatiently. "I suppose it could have been wrong, of course, but it gave me details and it certainly sounded like a Shifter. A powerful one. More powerful than anyone I've ever met, which suggests one of our kind gone red. And there haven't been any of those wandering about freely since the _Aldhaani."_

"But, Kaysa, that can't be," Chitral said almost desperately. "The reds are really dangerous, if one of them had been here —"

"You mean they're uncontrolled," said Kaysa harshly, though still being careful to keep her voice down. "There were tons of reds once and no one on the Homeworld talks like it was some kind of horrific time to be or like the planet should have been destroyed or anything."

"Yes, but—"

"Hey," Sirius interrupted quickly before they could get going on this again, "could you two talk politics later?"

"Yeah," agreed Peter. "We can hardly understand the ones on our own world."

"Sorry," said Chitral. "It's just . . . sort of a big deal."

"To you, maybe," said James, "Personally, I'm more interested in what the kelpie made you pay for this information."

"Good question," said Remus, eyeing Kaysa seriously. "What did it want from you?"

Kaysa shook her head and Sirius knew just from her expression that this was one thing they would never get out of her.

"It doesn't matter," she said firmly, and the subject was closed.


End file.
